WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S 
A-SEEKING 



BY RALPH WALDO TRINE. 



"The Life Books." 

I know of nothing in the entire range of 
literature more calculated to inspire the 
young than the "Life Books," and to re- 
new the soul in young and old. — From a 
Reader. 

WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING. 
IN TUNE WITH THE INFINITE; or, Fulness 
of Peace, Power, and Plenty. 



The " Life" Booklets. 

THE GREATEST THING EVER KNOWN. 
EVERY LIVING CREATURE. 
CHARACTER-BUILDING THOUGHT POWER. 



THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO., 

NEW YORK. 



V 

What all the m 
worlds a-seeking 



THE VITAL LAW OF TRUE LIFE, 
TRUE GREATNESS, POWER, 
AND HAPPINESS 



Each is building' his world from within : thought 
is the builder ; for thoughts are forces, — subtle, 
vital, irresistible, omnipotent, — and according 
as used do they bring power or impotence, peace 
or pain, success or failure. 



NEW YORK 
THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 



OR 




BY 



RALPH WALDO TRINE 



TWENTY-FOURTH THOUSAND 




Copyright, 1896, 
By Ralph Waldo Trin] 



Copyright, 1899, 
By Ralph Waldo Trine, 



PREFACE. 



There are two reasons the author has for putting forth this 
little volume : he feels that the time is, as it always has been, 
ripe for it; and second, his soul has ever longed to express 
itself upon this endless theme* It therefore comes from the 
heart — the basis of his belief that it will reach the heart. 

R. W. T. 

Boston, Massachusetts. 



PREFACE TO FIFTEENTH THOUSAND. 

It is impossible for one in a single volume, or perhaps in a 
number of volumes, to reach the exact needs of every reader. 

It is always a source of gratitude, as well as of inspiration 
for better and more earnest work in the future, for one to 
know that the truths that have been and that are so valuable 
and so vital to him he has succeeded in presenting in a 
manner such that they prove likewise of value to others. 
The author is most grateful for the good, kind words that 
have come so generously from so many hundreds of readers 
of this simple little volume from all parts of the world. He 
is also grateful to that large company of people who have 
been so good as to put the book into the hands of so many 
others. 

And as the days have passed, he has not been unmindful of 
the fact that he might make it, when the time came, of still 



vi 



PREFACE 



greater value to many* In addition to a general revision of 
the book* some four or five questions that seemed to be most 
frequently asked he has endeavored to point answer to in an 
added part of some thirty pages* under the general title, 
** Character-building Thought Power," The volume enters 
therefore upon its fifteenth thousand better able* possibly* to 
come a little more directly in touch with the every-day needs 
of those who will be sufficiently interested to read it* 

R. W. T. 

Boston, Massachusetts. 
July 25, 1899. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I, 

The Principle " 

PART II. 

The Application 39 

PART III. 

The Unfoldment . ■ ....... • 67 

PART IV. 

The Awakening m 

PART V. 

The Incoming !35 

PART VI. 

Character-building Thought Power . . . 195 



PART I. 
THE PRINCIPLE 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S 
A-SEEKING. 



THE PRINCIPLE. 

Would you find that wonderful life supernal, 
That life so abounding, so rich, and so free ? 

Seek then the laws of the Spirit Eternal, 
With them bring your life into harmony. 

How can I make life yield its fullest and 
best? How can I know the true secret of 
power? How can I attain to a true and last- 
ing greatness? How can I fill the whole of 
life with a happiness, a peace, a joy, a satis- 
faction that is ever rich and abiding, that ever 
increases, never diminishes, that imparts to it 
a sparkle that never loses its lustre, that ever 
fascinates, never wearies? 

No questions, perhaps, in this form or in that 
have been asked oftener than these. Millions 
in the past have asked them. Millions are 
asking them to-day. They will be asked by 
millions yet unborn. Is there an answer, a 
true and safe one for the millions who are 



12 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

eagerly and longingly seeking for it in all 
parts of the world to-day, and for the millions 
yet unborn who will as eagerly strive to find it 
as the years come and go ? Are you interested, 
my dear reader, in the answer? The fact that 
you have read even thus far in this little vol- 
ume whose title has led you to take it up, 
indicates that you are, — that you are but one 
of the innumerable company already men- 
tioned. 

It is but another way of asking that great 
question that has come through all the ages — 
What is the summum bonum in life? and there 
have been countless numbers who gladly would 
have given all they possessed to have had the 
true and satisfactory answer. Can we then 
find this answer, true and satisfactory to our- 
selves, surely the brief time spent together 
must be counted as the most precious and val- 
uable of life itself. There is an answer : fol- 
low closely, and that our findings may be the 
more conclusive, take issue with me at every 
step if you choose, but tell me finally if it is 
not true and satisfactory. 

There is one great, one simple principle, 
which, if firmly laid hold of, and if made the 
great central principle in one's life, around 
which all others properly arrange and subordi- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 3 



nate themselves, will make that life a grand 
success, truly great and genuinely happy, 
loved and blessed by all in just the degree 
in which it is laid hold upon,— a principle 
which, if universally made thus, would won- 
derfully change this old world in which we 

live, ay, that would transform it almost in a 

night, and it is for its coming that the world 
has long been waiting; that in place of the 
gloom and despair in almost countless numbers 
of lives would bring light and hope and con- 
tentment, and no longer would it be said as 
so truly to-day, that "man's inhumanity to 
man makes countless thousands mourn"; that 
would bring to the life of the fashionable so- 
ciety woman, now spending her days and her 
nights in seeking for nothing but her own 
pleasure, such a flood of true and genuine 
pleasure and happiness and satisfaction as 
would make the poor, weak something she 
calls by this name so pale before it, that she 
would quickly see that she hasn't known whd* 
true pleasure is, and that what she has been 
mistaking for the real, the genuine, is but as a 
baser metal compared to the purest of gold, as 
a bit of cut glass compared to the rarest of dia- 
monds, and that would make this same woman 
who scarcely deigns to notice the poor woman 



14 WHAT ALL THE WORLDS A-SEEKING 



who washes her front steps, but who, were the 
facts known, may be living a much grander 
life, and consequently of much more value to 
the world than she herself, see that this poor 
woman is after all her sister, because child of 
the same Father; and that would make the 
humble life of this same poor woman beautiful 
and happy and sweet in its humility; that 
would give us a nation of statesmen in place 
of, with now and then an exception, a nation 
of politicians, each one bent upon his own per- 
sonal aggrandizement at the expense of the 
general good; that would go far, ay, very far 
toward solving our great and hard-pressing 
social problems with which we are already face 
to face; that, in short, would make each man 
a prince among men, and each woman a queen 
among women. 

I have seen the supreme happiness in lives 
where this principle has been caught and laid 
hold of, some, lives that seemed not to have 
much in them before, but which under its 
wonderful influences have been so transformed 
and so beautified, that have been made so sweet 
and so strong, so useful and so precious, that 
each day seems to them all too short, the same 
time that before, when they could scarcely see 
what was in life to make it worth the living, 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 5 



dragged wearily along. So there are count- 
less numbers of people in the world with lives 
that seem not to have much in them, among 
the wealthy classes and among the poorer, who 
might under the influence of this great, this 
simple principle, make them so precious, so 
rich, and so happy that time would seem only 
too short, and they would wonder why they 
have been so long running on the wrong track, 
for it is true that much the larger portion of 
the world to-day is on the wrong track in the 
pursuit of happiness; but almost all are there, 
let it be said, not through choice, but by rea- 
son of not knowing the right, the true one. 

The fact that really great, true, and happy 
lives have been lived in the past and are being 
lived to-day gives us our starting-point. Time 
and again I have examined such lives in a most 
careful endeavor to find what has made them 
so, and have found that in each and every in- 
dividual case this that we have now come to 
has been the great central principle upon which 
they have been built. I have also found that 
in numbers of lives where it has not been, but 
where almost every effort apart from it has 
been made to make them great, true, and 
happy, they have not been so; and also that 
no life built upon it in sufficient degree, 



1 6 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



other things being equal, has failed in being 
thus. 

Let us then to the answer, examine it 
closely, see if it will stand every test, if it is 
the true one, and if so, rejoice that we have 
found it, lay hold of it, build upon it, tell 
others of it. The last four words have already 
entered us at the open door. The idea has 
prevailed in the past, and this idea has domi- 
nated the world, that self is the great concern, 
■ — that if one would find success, greatness, 
happiness, he must give all attention to self, 
and to self alone. This has been the great mis- 
take, this the fatal error, this the direct oppo- 
site of the right, the true as set forth in the 
great immutable law that — we find our own 
lives in losing them in the service of others, in 
longer form — the more of our lives we give 
to others, the fuller and the richer, the greatei 
and the grander, the more beautiful and the 
more happy our own lives become. It is as 
that great and sweet soul who when with us 
lived at Concord said, — that generous giving 
or losing of your life which saves it. 

This is an expression of one of the greatest 
truths, of one of the greatest principles of 
practical ethics the world has thus far seen. 
In a single word, it is service, — not self, but 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING I? 



the other self. We shall soon see, however, 
that our love, our service, our helpfulness to 
others, invariably comes back to us, intensified 
sometimes a hundred or a thousand or a thou- 
sand thousand fold, and this by a great, immu- 
table law. 

The Master Teacher, he who so many years 
ago in that far-away Eastern land, now in the 
hill country, now in the lake country, as the 
people gathered round him, taught them those 
great, high-born, and tender truths of human 
life and destiny, the Christ Jesus, said identi- 
cally this when he said and so continually re- 
peated,— "He that is greatest among you shall 
be your servant " ; and his whole life was but 
an embodiment of this principle or truth, with 
the result that the greatest name in the world 
to-day is his,— the name of him who as his 
life-work, healed the sick; clothed the naked; 
bound up the broken-hearted; sustained the 
weak, the faltering; befriended and aided 
the poor, the needy; condemned the proud, the 
vain, the selfish; and through it all taught the 
people to love justice and mercy and service, 
to live in their higher, their diviner selves,— 
in brief, to live his life, the Christ-life, and 
who has helped in making it possible for this 
greatest principle of practical ethics the world 



1 8 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



has thus far seen to be enunciated, to be laid 
hold of, to be lived by to-day. "He that is 
greatest among you shall be your servant," or, 
he who would be truly great and recognized as 
such must find it in the capacity of a servant. 

And what, let us ask, is a servant? One 
who renders service. To himself? Never. 
To others ? Alway. Freed of its associations 
and looked at in the light of its right and true 
meaning, than the word " servant " there is no 
greater in the language ; and in this right use 
of the term, as we shall soon see, every life that 
has been really true, great, and happy has been 
that of a servant, and apart from this no such 
life ever has been or ever can be lived. 

O you who are seeking for power, for place, 
for happiness, for contentment in the ordi- 
nary way, tarry for a moment, see that you 
are on the wrong track, grasp this great eter- 
nal truth, lay hold of it, and you will see that 
your advance along this very line will be man- 
ifold times more rapid. Are you seeking, 
then, to make for yourself a name? Unless 
you grasp this mighty truth and make your 
life accordingly, as the great clock of time 
ticks on and all things come to their proper 
level according to their merits, as all invari- 
ably, inevitably do, you will indeed be some- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



what surprised to find how low, how very low 
your level is. Your name and your memory 
will be forgotten long ere the minute-hand 
has passed even a single time across the great 
dial ; while your fellow-man who has grasped 
this simple but this great and all-necessary 
truth, and who accordingly is forgetting him- 
self in the service of others, who is making 
his life a part of a hundred or a thousand or a 
million lives, thus inimitably intensifying or 
multiplying his own, instead of living as you 
in what otherwise would be his own little, 
I diminutive self, will find himself ascending 
\ higher and higher until he stands as one 
among the few, and will find a peace, a happi- 
ness, a satisfaction so rich and so beautiful, 
compared to which yours will be but a poor 
miserable something, and whose name and 
memory when his life here is finished, will 
' live in the minds and hearts of his fellow-men 
and of mankind fixed and eternal as the stars. 

A corollary of the great principle already 
enunciated might be formulated thus: there 
is no such thing as finding true happiness by 
searching for it directly. It must come, if it 
come at all, indirectly, or by the service, the 
j love, and the happiness we give to others. So, 
there is no such thing as finding true greatness 



20 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



by searching for it directly. It always, without 
a single exception has come indirectly in this 
same way, and it is not at all probable that 
this great eternal law is going to be changed 
to suit any particular case or cases. Then 
recognize it, put your life into harmony with 
it, and reap the rewards of its observance, or 
fail to recognize it and pay the penalty ac- 
cordingly; for the law itself will remain un- 
changed. 

The men and women whose names we honor 
and celebrate are invariably those with lives 
founded primarily upon this great law. Note 
if you will, every truly great life in the world's 
history, among those living and among the 
so-called dead, and tell me if in every case 
that life is not a life spent in the service of 
others, either directly, or indirectly as when 
we say — he served his country. Whenever 
one seeks for reputation, for fame, for honor, 
for happiness directly and for his own sake, 
then that which is true and genuine never 
comes, at least to any degree worthy the name. 
It may seem to for a time, but a great law says 
that such an one gets so far and no farther. 
Sooner or later, generally sooner, there comes 
an end. 

Human nature seems to run in this way, 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 21 



seems to be governed by a great paradoxical 
law which says, that whenever a man self- 
centred, thinking of, living for and in himself, 
is very desirous for place, for preferment, for 
honor, the very fact of his being thus is of 
itself a sufficient indicator that he is too 
small to have them, and mankind refuses to 
accord them. While the one who forgets 
self, and who, losing sight of these things, 
makes it his chief aim in life to help, to aid, 
and to serve others, by this very fact makes 
it known that he is large enough, is great 
enough to have them, and his fellow-men in- 
stinctively bestow them upon him. This is 
a great law which many would profit by to 
recognize. That it is true is attested by the 
fact that the praise of mankind instinctively 
and universally goes out to a hero; but who 
ever heard of a hero who became such by doing 
something for himself? Always something he 
has done for others. By the fact that monu- 
ments and statues are gratefully erected to the 
memory of those who have helped and served 
their fellow-men, not to those who have lived 
to themselves alone. 

I have seen many monuments and statues 
erected to the memories of philanthropists, but 
I never yet have seen one erected to a miser; 



22 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



many to generous-hearted, noble-hearted men, 
but never yet to one whose whole life was 
that of a sharp bargain-driver, and who clung 
with a sort of semi-idiotic grasp to all that 
came thus into his temporary possession. I 
have seen many erected to statesmen, — states- 
men, — but never one to mere politicians; 
many to true orators, but never to mere dema- 
gogues; many to soldiers and leaders, but 
never to men who were not willing, when nec- 
essary, to risk all in the service of their 
country. No, you will find that the world's 
monuments and statues have been erected and 
its praises and honors have gone out to those 
who were large and great enough to forget 
themselves in the service of others, who have 
been servants, true servants of mankind, who 
have been true to the great law that we find 
our own lives in losing them in the service 
of others. Not honor for themselves, but 
service for others. But notice the strange, 
wonderful, beautiful transformation as it re- 
turns upon itself, — honor for themselves, be- 
cause of service to others. 

It would be a matter of exceeding great 
interest to verify the truth of what has just 
been said by looking at a number of those who 
are regarded as the world's great sons and 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 2 3 



daughters,— those to whom its honors, its 
praises, its homage go out,— to see why it is, 
upon what their lives have been founded that 
they have become so great and are so honored. 
Of all this glorious company that would come 
up, we must be contented to look at but one 
or two. 

There comes to my mind the name and 
figure of him the celebration of whose birth- 
day I predict will soon be made a national 
holiday,— he than whom there is no greater, 
whose praises are sung and whose name and 
memory are honored and blessed by millions 
in all parts of the world to-day, and will be 
by millions yet unborn, our beloved and 
sainted Lincoln. And then I ask, Why is 
this? Why is this? One sentence of his 
tells us what to look to for the answer. Dur- 
ing that famous series of public debates in 
Illinois with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, 
speaking at Freeport, Mr. Douglas at one 
place said, "I care not whether slavery in the 
Territories be voted up or whether it be voted 
down, it makes not a particle of difference 
with me." Mr. Lincoln, speaking from the 
fulness of his great and royal heart, in reply 
said, with emotion, "I am sorry to perceive 
that my friend Judge Douglas is so consti- 



24 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



tuted that he does not feel the lash the least 
bit when it is laid upon another man's back." 
Thoughts upon self? Not for a moment 
Upon others? Always. He at once recog- 
nized in those black men four million brothers 
for whom he had a service to perform. 

It would seem almost grotesque to use the 
word self-ish in connection with this great 
name. He very early, and when still in a 
very humble and lowly station in life, either 
consciously or unconsciously grasped this 
great truth, and in making the great underly- 
ing principle of his life to serve, to help his 
fellow-men, he adopted just that course that 
has made him one of the greatest of the sons 
of men, our royal-hearted elder brother. He 
never spent time in asking what he could do 
to attain to greatness, to popularity, to power, 
what to perpetuate his name and memory. He 
simply asked how he could help, how he could 
be of service to his fellow-men, and continu- 
ally did all his hands found to do. 

He simply put his life into harmony with 
this great principle; and in so doing he 
adopted the best means, — the only means to 
secure that which countless numbers seek and 
strive for directly, and every time so woefully 
fail in finding. 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 2$ 



There comes to my mind in this same con- 
nection another princely soul, one who loved 
all the world, one whom all the world loves 
and delights to honor. There comes to mind 
also a little incident that will furnish an in- 
sight into the reason of it all. On an after- 
noon not long ago, Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher 
was telling me of some of the characteristics 
of Brooklyn's great preacher. While she was 
yet speaking of some of those along the very 
lines we are considering, an old gentleman, a 
neighbor, came into the room bearing in his 
hands something he had brought from Mr. 
Beecher's grave. It was the day next follow- 
ing Decoration Day. His story was this: 
As the great procession was moving into the 
cemetery with its bands of rich music, with 
its carriages laden with sweet and fragrant 
flowers, with its waving flags, beautiful in the 
sunlight, a poor and humble-looking woman 
with two companions, by her apparent nervous- 
ness attracted the attention of the gate-keeper. 
He kept her in view for a little while, and 
presently saw her as she gave something she 
had partially concealed to one of her compan- 
ions, who, leaving the procession, went over 
to the grave of Mr. Beecher, and tenderly laid 
it there. Reverently she stood for a moment 



26 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



or two, and then, retracing her steps, joined 
her two companions, who with bowed heads 
were waiting by the wayside. 

It was this that the old gentleman had 
brought, — a gold frame, and in it a poem cut 
from a volume, a singularly beautiful poem 
through which was breathed the spirit of love 
and service and self-devotion to the good and 
the needs of others. At one or two places 
where it fitted, the pen had been drawn across 
a word and Mr. Beecher's name inserted, 
which served to give it a still more real, 
vivid, and tender meaning. At the bottom 
this only was written, "From a poor Hebrew 
woman to the immortal friend of the He- 
brews." There was no name, but this was 
sufficient to tell the whole story. Some poor, 
humble woman, but one out of a mighty num- 
ber whom he had at some time befriended 
or helped or cheered, whose burden he had 
helped to carry, and soon perhaps had forgot- 
ten all about it. When we remember that 
this was his life, is it at all necessary to seek 
farther why all the world delights to honor 
this, another royal-hearted elder brother? and, 
as we think of this simple, beautiful, and 
touching incident, how true and living be- 
comes the thought in the old, old lines! — 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 27 



« Cast thy bread upon the waters, waft it on with pray- 
ing breath, 

In some distant, doubtful moment it may save a soul 
from death. 

When you sleep in solemn silence, 'neath the morn 

and evening dew, 
Stranger hands which you have strengthened may 

strew lilies over you." 

Our good friend, Henry Drummond, in one 
of his most beautiful and valuable little 
works says — and how admirably and how 
truly! — that' 'love is the greatest thing in the 
world." Have you this greatest thing? Yes. 
How, then, does it manifest itself? In kind- 
liness, in helpfulness, in service, to those 
around you ? If so, well and good, you have 
it. If not, then I suspect that what you have 
been calling love is something else; and you 
have indeed been greatly fooled. In fact, I 
am sure it is; for if it does not manifest itself 
in this way, it cannot be true love, for this is 
the one grand and never-failing test. Love is 
the statics, helpfulness and service the dy- 
namics, the former necessary to the latter, 
but the latter the more powerful, as action is 
always more powerful than potentiality; and, 
were it not for the dynamics, the statics might 
as well not be. Helpfulness, kindliness, ser- 
vice, is but the expression of love. It is love 



28 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



in action; and unless love thus manifests itself 
in action, it is an indication that it is of that 
weak and sickly nature that needs exercise, 
growth, and development, that it may grow and 
become strong, healthy, vigorous, and true, 
instead of remaining a little, weak, indefinite, 
sentimental something or nothing. 

It was but yesterday that I heard one of the 
world's greatest thinkers and speakers, one of 
our keenest observers of human affairs, state 
as his opinion that selfishness is the root of 
all evil. Now, if it is possible for any one 
thing to be the root of all evil, then I think 
there is a world of truth in the statement. 
But, leaving out of account for the present pur- 
pose whether it is true or not, it certainly is 
true that he who can't get beyond self robs 
his life of its chief charms, and more, defeats 
the very ends he has in view. It is a well- 
known law in the natural world about us that 
whatever hasn't use, that whatever serves no 
purpose, shrivels up. So it is a law of our own 
being that he who makes himself of no use, of 
no service to the great body of mankind, who 
is concerned only with his own small self, 
finds that self, small as it is, growing smaller 
and smaller, and those finer and better and 
grander qualities of his nature, those that give 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 2Q 



the chief charm and happiness to life, shrivel- 
ling up. Such an one lives, keeps constant 
company with his own diminutive and stunted 
self; while he who, forgetting self, makes 
the object of his life service, helpfulness, and 
kindliness to others, finds his whole nature 
growing and expanding, himself becoming 
large-hearted, magnanimous, kind, loving, 
sympathetic, joyous, and happy, his life be- 
coming rich and beautiful. For instead of his 
own little life alone he has entered into and 
has part in a hundred, a thousand, ay, in 
countless numbers of other lives; and every 
success, every joy, every happiness coming to 
each of these comes as such to him, for he has 
a part in each and all. And thus it is that one 
becomes a prince among men, a queen among 
women. 

Why, one of the very fundamental princi- 
ples of life is, so much love, so much love in 
return; so much love, so much growth; so 
much love, so much power; so much love, so 
much life,— strong, healthy, rich, exulting, 
and abounding life. The world is beginning 
to realize the fact that love, instead of being a 
mere indefinite something, is a vital and liv- 
ing force, the same as electricity is a force, 
though perhaps of a different nature. The 



30 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

same great fact we are learning in regard to 
thought,— that thoughts are things, that 
thoughts are forces, the most vital and power- 
ful in the universe, that they have form and 
substance and power, the quality of the power 
determined as it is by the quality of the life 
in whose organism the thoughts are engen- 
dered ; and so, when a thought is given birth, 
it does not end there, but takes form, and 
as a force it goes out and has its effect upon 
other minds and lives, the effect being deter- 
mined by its intensity and the quality of the 
prevailing emotions, and also by the emotions 
dominating the person at the time the thoughts 
are engendered and given form. 

Science, while demonstrating the great 
facts it is to-day demonstrating in connection 
with the mind in its relations to and effects 
upon the body, is also finding from its very 
laboratory experiments that each particular 
kind of thought and emotion has its own pe- 
culiar qualities, and hence its own peculiar 
effects or influences; and these it is classify- 
ing with scientific accuracy. A very general 
classification in just a word would be — those 
of a higher and those of a lower nature. 
/ Some of the chief ones among those of the 
lower nature are anger, hatred, jealousy 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 3 1 



malice, rage. Their effect, especially when 
violent, is to emit a poisonous substance into 
the system, or rather, to set up a corroding 
influence which transforms the healthy and 
life-giving secretions of the body into the 
poisonous and the destructive.^ When one, 
for example, is dominated, even if for but a 
moment by a passion of anger or rage, there 
is set up in the system what might be justly 
termed a bodily thunder-storm, which has the 
effect of souring or corroding the normal and 
healthy secretions of the body and making 
them so that instead of life-giving they be- 
come poisonous. This, if indulged in to any 
extent, sooner or later induces the form of 
disease that this particular state of mind and 
emotion or passion gives birth to; and it in 
turn becomes chronic. 

(We shall ultimately find, as we are begin- 
ning to so rapidly to-day, that practically all 
disease has its origin in perverted mental 
states or emotions; that anger, hatred, fear, 
worry, jealousy, lust, as well as all milder 
forms of perverted mental states and emotions, 
has each its own peculiar poisoning effects 
and induces each its own peculiar form of 
disease, for all life is from within out. 

Then some of the chief ones belonging to 



32 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

the other class — mental states and emotions 
of the higher nature -/are love, sympathy, 
benevolence, kindliness, and good cheer! } 
I These are the natural and the normal ; and 
their effect, when habitually entertained, is to 
stimulate a vital, healthy, bounding, purify- 
ing, and life-giving action, the exact opposite 
of the others; and these very forces, set into 
a bounding activity, will in time counteract 
and heal the disease-giving effects of their 
opposites. Their effects upon the countenance 
and features in inducing the highest beauty 
that can dwell there are also marked and all- 
powerful. So much, then, in regard to the 
effects of one's thought forces upon the self. 
A word more in regard to their effects upon 
others. 

f Our prevailing thought forces determine 
the mental atmosphere we create around us, 
and all who come within its influence are 
affected in one way or another, according to 
the quality of that atmosphere; and, though 
they may not always get the exact thoughts, 
they nevertheless get the effects of the emo- 
tions dominating the originator of the thoughts, 
and hence the creator of this particular mental 
atmosphere, and the more sensitively organized 
the person the more sensitive he or she is to 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 33 



this atmosphere, even at times to getting the 
exact and very thoughts. So even in this the 
prophecy is beginning to be fulfilled, — there 
is nothing hid that shall not be revealed. 

If the thought forces sent out by any partic- 
ular life are those of hatred or jealousy or 
malice or fault-finding or criticism or scorn, 
these same thought forces are aroused and sent 
back from others, so that one is affected not 
only by reason of the unpleasantness of having 
such thoughts from others, but they also in 
turn affect one's own mental states, and 
through these his own bodily conditions, so 
that, so far as even the welfare of self is con- 
cerned, the indulgence in thoughts and emo- 
tions of this nature are most expensive, most 
detrimental, most destructive. 

If, on the other hand, the thought forces 
sent out be those of love, of sympathy, of 
kindliness, of cheer and good will, these 
same forces are aroused and sent back, so that 
their pleasant, ennobling, warming, and life- 
giving effects one feels and is influenced by; 
and so again, so far even as the welfare of self 
is concerned, there is nothing more desirable, 
more valuable and life-giving. There comes 
from others, then, exactly what one sends to 
and hence calls forth from them. 



34 WHAT ALL THE WORLD 's A-SEEKING 

And would we have all the world love us, 
we must first then love all the world, — merely 
a great scientific fact. Why is it that all 
people instinctively dislike and shun the little, 
the mean, the self-centred, the selfish, while 
all the world instinctively, irresistibly, loves 
and longs for the company of the great-hearted, 
the tender-hearted, the loving, the magnani- 
mous, the sympathetic, the brave? The mere 
answer — because — will not satisfy. There 
is a deep, scientific reason for it, either this 
or it is not true. 

Much has been said, much written, in re- 
gard to what some have been pleased to call 
personal magnetism, but which, as is so com- 
monly true in cases of this kind, is even 
to-day but little understood. But to. my mind 
personal magnetism in its true sense, and as 
distinguished from what may be termed a 
purely animal magnetism, is nothing more nor 
less than the thought forces sent out by a 
great-hearted, tender-hearted, magnanimous, 
loving, sympathetic man or woman; for, let 
me ask, have you ever known of any great 
personal magnetism in the case of the little, 
the mean, the vindictive, the self-centred? 
Never, I venture to say, but always in the case 
of the other. 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 35 



Why, there is nothing that can stand before 
; this wonderful transmuting power of love. So 
far even as the enemy is concerned, I may not 
be to blame if I have an enemy; but I am to 
blame if I keep him as such, especially after 
I know of this wonderful transmuting power. 
Have I then an enemy, I will refuse, abso- 
lutely refuse, to recognize him as such; and 
instead of entertaining the thoughts of him 
that he entertains of me, instead of sending 
him like thought forces, I will send him only 
thoughts of love, of sympathy, of brotherly 
kindness, and magnanimity. But a short time 
it will be until he feels these, and is influ- 
enced by them. Then in addition I will 
watch my opportunity, and whenever I can, I 
will even go out of my way to do him some 
I little kindnesses. Before these forces he can- 
not stand, and by and by I shall find that he 
who to-day is my bitterest enemy is my 
warmest friend and it may be my staunchest 
supporter. No, the wise man is he who by 
that wonderful alchemy of love transmutes the 
enemy into the friend, — transmutes the bit- 
terest enemy into the warmest friend and sup- 
porter. Certainly this is what the Master 
meant when he said: " Love your enemies, do 
good to them that hate you and despitefully 



36 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



use you : thou shalt thereby be heaping coals 
of fire upon their heads. " Ay, thou shalt melt 
them : before this force they cannot stand. 
Thou shalt melt them, and transmute them 
into friends. 

" You never can tell what your thoughts will do 

In bringing you hate or love ; 
For thoughts are things, and their airy wings 

Are swifter than carrier doves. 
They follow the law of the universe, — 

Each thing must create its kind ; 
And they speed o'er the track to bring you back 

Whatever went out from your mind." 

Yes, science to-day, at the close of this 
nineteenth century, in the laboratory is dis- 
covering and scientifically demonstrating the 
great, immutable laws upon which the inspired 
and illuminated ones of all ages have based all 
their teachings, those who by ordering their 
lives according to the higher laws of their 
being get in a moment of time, through the 
direct touch of inspiration, what it takes the 
physical investigator a whole lifetime or a 
series of investigators a series of lifetimes to 
discover and demonstrate. 



PART II. 
THE APPLICATION 



THE APPLICATION. 



Are you seeking for greatness, O brother of mine, 

As the full, fleeting seasons and years glide away? 
If seeking directly and for self alone, 

The true and abiding you never can stay. 
But all self forgetting, know well the law, 

It's the hero, and not the self-seeker, who's crowned. 
Then go lose your life in the service of others, 

And, lo ! with rare greatness and glory 'twill abound. 

Is it your ambition to become greut in any 
particular field, to attain to fame and honor, 
and thereby to happiness and contentment? 
Is it your ambition, for example, to become a 
great orator, to move great masses of men, to 
receive their praise, their plaudits? Then 
remember that there never has been, there never 
will, in brief, there never can be a truly great 
orator without a great purpose, a great cause 
behind him. You may study in all the best 
schools in the country, the best universities 
and the best schools of oratory. You may 
study until you exhaust all these, and then 
seek the best in other lands. You may study 
thus until your hair is beginning to change its 



40 WHAT ALL THE WORLD 's A-SEEKING 



color, but this of itself will never make you a 
great orator. You may become a demagogue, 
and, if self-centred, you inevitably will; for 
this is exactly what a demagogue is, — a great 
demagogue, if you please, than which it is hard 
for one to call to mind a more contemptible ani- 
mal, and the greater the more contemptible. 
But without laying hold of and building upon 
this great principle you never can become a 
great orator. 

Call to mind the greatest in the world's 
history, from Demosthenes — Men of Athens, 
march against Philip, your country and your 
fellow-men will be in early bondage unless 
you give them your best service now — down 
to our own Phillips and Gough,— Wendell 
Phillips against the traffic in human blood, 
John B. Gough against a slavery among his 
fellow-men more hard and galling and abject 
than the one just spoken of; for by it the body 
merely is in bondage, the mind and soul are 
free, while in this, body, soul, and mind are 
enslaved. So you can easily discover the 
great purpose, the great cause for service, be- 
hind each and every one. 

The man who can't get beyond himself, his 
own aggrandizement and interests, must of 
necessity be small, petty, personal, and at once 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 4 1 



marks his own limitations; while he whose 
life is a life of service and self-devotion has 
no limits, for he thus puts himself at once on 
the side of the Universal, and this more than 
all else combined gives a tremendous power 
in oratory. Such a one can mount as on the 
wings of an eagle, and Nature herself seems to 
come forth and give a great soul of this kind 
means and material whereby to accomplish his 
purposes, whereby the great universal truths 
go direct to the minds and hearts of his 
hearers to mould them, to move them ; for the 
orator is he who moulds the minds and hearts 
of his hearers in the great moulds of universal 
and eternal truth, and then moves them along 
a definite line of action, not he who merely 
speaks pieces to them. 

How thoroughly Webster recognized this 
great principle is admirably shown in that 
brief but powerful description of eloquence 
of his; let us pause to listen to a sentence 
or two: "True eloquence indeed does not 
consist in speech. . . . Words and phrases 
may be marshalled in every way, but they can- 
not compass it. . . . Affected passion, intense 
expression, the pomp of declamation, all may 
aspire to it; they cannot reach it. . . . The 
graces taught in the schools, the costly orna- 



42 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



ments and studied contrivances of speec 
shock and disgust men when their own lives 
and the fate of their wives and their children 
and their country hang on the decision of the 
hour. Then words have lost their power, 
rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate oratory con- 
temptible. Even genius itself then feels re- 
buked and subdued, as in the presence of 
higher qualities. Then patriotism is elo- 
quent, then self-devotion is eloquent. The 
clear conception, outrunning the deductions of 
logic, the high purpose, the firm resolve, the 
dauntless spirit speaking on the tongue, beam- 
ing from the eye, informing every feature and 
urging the whole man onward, right onward to 
his object, — this, this is eloquence." And 
note some of the chief words he has used,— 
self-devotion, patriotism, high purpose. The 
self-centred man can never know these, and 
much less can he make use of them. 

True, things that one may learn, as the free- 
ing of the bodily agents, the developing of the 
voice, and so on, that all may become the true 
reporters of the soul, instead of limiting or 
binding it down, as is so frequently the case in 
public speakers, — these are all valuable, ay, 
are very important and very necessary, unless 
one is content to live below his highest possi- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 43 



bilities, and he is wise who recognizes this 
fact; but these in themselves are but as 
trifles when compared to those greater, more 
powerful, and all-essential qualities. 

Is it your ambition to become a great states 
mant Note the very first thing, then, the 
word itself, — states-man, a man who gives his 
life to the service of the State. And do you 
not recognize the fact that, when one says — a 
man who gives his life to the service of the 
State, it is but another way of saying — a 
man who gives his life to the service of his 
fellow-men; for what, after all, is any coun- 
try, any State, in the true sense of the term, 
but the aggregate, the great body of its indi- 
vidual citizenship. And he who lives for and 
unto himself, who puts the interests of his 
own small self before the interests of the 
thousands, can never become a states-man ; for 
a statesman must be a larger man than this. 

Call to your mind the greatest of the world, 
among those living and among the so-called 
dead, and you will quickly see that the life of 
each and every one has been built upon this 
great principle, and that all have been great 
and are held as such in just the degree in 
which it has been. Two of the greatest among 



44 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



Americans, both passed away, would to-day 
and even more as time goes on, be counted 
still greater, had they been a little larger in 
one aspect of their natures, — large enough to 
have recognized to its fullest extent the eter- 
nal truth and importance of this great princi- 
ple, and had they given the time to the service 
of their fellow-men that was spent in desiring 
the Presidency and in all too plainly making 
it known. Having gained it could have made 
them no greater, and having so plainly shown 
their eager and childish desire for it has made 
them less great. Of the many thousands of 
men who have been in our American Congress 
since its beginning, and of the very, very 
small number comparatively that you are able 
to call to mind, possibly not over fifty, which 
would be about one out of every six hundred 
or more, you will find that you are able to call 
to mind each one of this very small number on 
account of his standing for some measure or 
principle that would to the highest degree in- 
crease the human welfare, thus truly fulfilling 
the great office of a statesman. 

The one great trouble with our country 
to-day is that we have but few statesmen. We 
have a great swarm, a great hoard of politi- 
cians; but it is only now and then that we find 



What all the world's a-seekiNg 45 

a man who is large enough truly to deserve 
the name — statesman. The large majority in 
public life to-day are there not for the purpose 
of serving the best interests of those whom they 
are supposed to represent, but they are there 
purely for self, purely for self-aggrandizement 
in this form or in that, as the case may be. 

Especially do we find this true in our mu- 
nicipalities. In some, the government instead 
of being in the hands of those who would make 
it such in truth, those who would make it 
serve the interests it is designed to serve, it 
is in the hands of those who are there purely 
for self, little whelps, those who will resort 
to any means to secure their ends, at times 
even to honorable means, should they seem to 
serve best the particular purpose in hand. We 
have but to look around us to see that this is 
true. The miserable, filthy, and deplorable 
condition of affairs the Lexow Committee in 
its investigations not so long ago laid bare to 
public gaze had its root in what ? In the fact 
that the offices in that great municipality have 
been and are filled by men who are there to 
serve in the highest degree the public welfare 
or by men who are there purely for self-aggran- 
dizement? But let us pass on. This de- 
graded condition of affairs exists not only in 



46 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

this great city, but there are scarcely any that 
are free from it entirely. Matters are not 
always to continue thus, however. The Amer- 
ican people will learn by and by what they 
ought fully to realize to-day — that the moment 
the honest people, the citizens, in distinction 
from the barnacles, mass themselves and stay 
massed, the notorious, filthy political rings 
cannot stand before them for a period of even 
twenty-four hours. The right, the good, the 
trite, is all -powerful, and will inevitably con- 
quer sooner or later when brought to the front. 
Such is the history of civilization. 

Let our public offices — municipal, state, 
and federal — be filled with men who are in 
love with the human kind, large men, men 
whose lives are founded upon this great law 
of service, and we will then have them filled 
with statesmen. Never let this glorious word 
be disgraced, degraded, by applying it to. the 
little, self-centred whelps who are unable to 
get beyond the politician stage. Then enter 
public life; but enter it as a man, not as a bar- 
nacle : enter it as a statesman, not as a poli- 
tician. 



Is it your ambition to become a great 
preacher, or better yet, with the same mean- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 47 



ing, a great teacher? Then remember that 
the greatest of the world have been those who 
have given themselves in thorough self-devo- 
tion and service to their fellow-men, who have 
given themselves so thoroughly to all they 
have come in contact with that there has been 
no room for self. They have not oeen seekers 
after fame, or men who have thought so much 
of their own particular dogmatic ways of 
thinking as to spend the greater part of their 
time in discussing dogma, creed, theology, in 
order, as is so generally true in cases of this 
kind, to prove that the ego you see before you 
is right in his particular ways of thinking, and 
that his chief ambition is to have this fact 
clearly understood, — an abomination, I verily 
believe, in the sight of God himself, whose 
children in the mean time are starving, are 
dying for the bread of life, and an abomina- 
tion I am sure, in the sight of the great ma- 
jority of mankind. Let us be thankful, how- 
ever, for mankind is finding less use for such 
year by year, and the time will soon come 
when they will scarcely be tolerated at all. 

It is to a very great extent on account of 
men of this kind, especially in the early his- 
tory, that the true spirit of religion, of Chris- 
tianity, has been lost sight of in the mere form. 



48 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



The basket in which it has been deemed neces- 
sary to carry it has been held as of greater im- 
port than the rare and divinely beautiful fruit 
itself. The true spirit, that that quickeneth 
and giveth life and power, has had its place 
taken by the mere letter, that that alone 
blighteth and killeth. Instead of running 
after these finely spun, man-made theories, 
this stuff, — for stuff is the word, — this that 
we outgrow once every few years in our march 
onward and upward, and then stand and laugh 
as we look back to think that such ideas have 
ever been held, instead of this, thinking that 
thus you will gain power, act the part of the 
wise man, and go each day into the silence, 
there commune with the Infinite, there dwell 
for a season with the Infinite Spirit of all life, 
of all power; for you can get true power in no 
other way. 

Instead of running about here and there to 
have your cup filled at these little stagnant 
pools, dried up as they generally are by the 
continual rays of a constantly shining egoistic 
sun, go direct to the great fountain-head, and 
there drink of the water of life that is poured 
out freely to every one if he will but go there 
for it. One can't, however, send and have it 
brought by another. 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 49 



Go, then, into the silence, even if it be but 
for a short period, — a period of not more than 
a quarter or a half-hour a day, — and there 
come into contact with the Great Source of 
all life, of all power. Send out your earnest 
desires for whatsoever you will ; and whatso- 
ever you will, if continually watered by ex- 
pectation, will sooner or later come to you. 
All knowledge, all truth, all power, all wis- 
dom, all things whatsoever, are yours, if you 
will but go in this way for them. It has 
been tried times without number, and has 
never yet once failed where the motives have 
been high, where the knowledge of the re- 
sults beforehand has been sufficiently great. 
Within a fortnight you can know the truth of 
this for yourself if you will but go in the 
right way. 

All the truly great teachers in the world's 
history have gotten their powers in this way. 
You remember the great soul who left us not 
long ago, he who ministered so faithfully at 
Trinity, the great preacher of such wonderful 
powers, the one so truly inspired. It was but 
an evening or two since, when in conversation 
with a member of his congregation, we were 
talking in regard to Phillips Brooks. She was 
telling of his beautiful and powerful spirit 



t 



50 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



and said that they were all continually con- 
scious of the fact that he had a power they 
hadn't, but that all longed for; that he seemed 
to have a great secret of power they hadn't, 
but that they often tried to find. She contin- 
ued, and in the very next sentence went on to 

tell of a fact,— one that I knew full well, 

the fact that during a certain period of each 
day he took himself alone into a little, silent 
room, he fastened the door behind him, and 
during this period under no circumstances 
could he be seen by any one. The dear lady 
knew these two things, she knew and was 
influenced by his great soul power, she also 
knew of his going thus into the silence each 
day; but, bless her heart, it had never once 
occurred to her to put the two together. 

It is in this way that great soul power is 
grown; and the men of this great power are 
the men who move the world, the men who do 
the great work in the world along all lines, 
and against whom no man, no power, can stand. 
Call to mind a number of the world's greatest 
preachers, or, using again the better term, 
teachers, and bear in mind I do not mean 
creed, dogma, form, but religious teachers, — 
and the one class differs from the other even 
as the night from the day, — and you will find 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 5 1 



two great facts in the life of each and all, — - 
great soul power, grown chiefly by much time 
spent in the silence, and the fact that the life 
of each has been built upon this one great and 
all-powerful principle of love, service, and 
helpfulness for all mankind. 

Is it your ambition to become a great 
writer? Very good. But remember that un- 
less you have something to give to the world, 
something you feel mankind must have, some- 
thing that will aid them in their march up- 
ward and onward, unless you have some ser- 
vice of this kind to render, then you had better 
be wise, and not take up the pen ; for, if your 
object in writing is merely fame or money, 
the number of your readers may be exceed- 
ingly small, possibly a few score or even a few 
dozen may be a large estimate. 

What an author writes is, after all, the sum 
total of his life, his habits, his characteristics, 
his experiences, his purposes. He never can 
write more than he himself is. He can never 
pass beyond his limitations; and unless he 
have a purpose higher than writing merely for 
fame or self-aggrandizement, he thereby marks 
his own limitations, and what he seeks will 
never come. While he who writes for the 



52 WHAT ALL THE WORLD* S A-SEEKING 

world, because he feels he has something that 
it needs and that will be a help to mankind, if 
it is something it needs, other things being 
equal, that which the other man seeks for di- 
rectly, and so never finds, will come to him in 
all its fulness. This is the way it comes, 
and this way only. Mankind cares nothing 
for you until you have shown that you care for 
mankind. 

Note this statement from the letter of a now 
well-known writer, one whose very first book 
met with instant success, and that has been 
followed by others all similarly received. She 
says, "1 never thought of writing until two 
years and a half ago, when, in order to disbur- 
den my mind of certain thoughts that clamored 
for utterance, I produced," etc. In the light 
of this we cannot wonder at the remarkable 
success of her very first and all succeeding 
books. She had something she felt the world 
needed and must have; and, with no thought 
of self, of fame, or of money, she gave it. 
The world agreed with her; and, as she was 
large enough to seek for neither, it has given 
her both. 

Note this also: "I write for the love of 
writing, not for money or reputation. The 
former I have without exertion, the latter is 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 53 



not worth a pin's point in the general econ- 
omy of the vast universe. Work done for the 
love of working brings its own reward far 
more quickly and surely than work done for 
mere payment." This is but the formulated 
statement of what all the world's greatest 
writers and authors have said or would say, — ■ 
at least so far as I have come in contact with 
their opinions in regard to it. 

So, unless you are large enough to forget self 
for the good, for the service of mankind, thus 
putting yourself on the side of the universal 
and making it possible for you to give some- 
thing that will in turn of itself bring fame, 
you had better be wise, and not lift the pen at 
all ; for what you write will not be taken up, 
or, if it is, will soon be let fall again. 

One of our most charming and most noted 
American authors says in regard to her writ- 
ing, "I press my soul upon the white paper " ; 
and let me tell you the reason it in turn makes 
its impression upon so many thousands of other 
souls is because hers is so large, so tender, 
so sympathetic, so loving, that others cannot 
resist the impression, living as she does not 
for self, but for the service of others, her own 
life thus having a part in countless numbers of 
other lives. 



54 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



It is only that that comes from the heart 
that can reach the heart. Take from their 
shelves the most noted, the greatest works in 
any library, and you will find that their authors 
have made them what they are not by a study 
of the rules and principles of rhetoric, for this 
of itself never has made and never can make 
a great writer. They are what they are be- 
cause the author's very soul has been fired by 
some great truth or fact that the world has 
needed, that has been a help to mankind. 
Large souls they have been, souls in love with 
all the human kind. 

Is it your ambition to become a great actor f 
Then remember that if you make it the object 
of your life to play to influence the hearts, the 
lives, and so the destinies of men, this same great 
law of nature that operates in the case of the 
orator will come to your assistance, will aid 
you in your growth and development, and will 
enable you to attain to heights you could never 
attain to or even dream of, in case you play for 
the little ego you otherwise would stand for. 
In the latter case you may succeed in making 
a third or a fourth rate actor, possibly a second 
rate; but you can never become one of the 
world's greatest, and the chances are you may 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD* S A-SEEKING 55 



succeed in making not even a livelihood, and 
thus have your wonderment satisfied why so 
many who try fail. 

In the other case, other things being equal, 
the height you may attain to is unbounded, 
depending upon the degree you are able to 
forget yourself in influencing the minds and 
the souls, and thus the lives and the destinies 
of men. 

Is it your ambition to become a great singer? 
Then remember that if your thought is only 
of self, you may never sing at all, unless, in- 
deed, you enjoy singing to yourself, — this, or 
you will be continually anxious as to the size 
of your audience. If, on the other hand, you 
choose this field of work because here you can 
be of the greatest service to mankind, if your 
ambition is to sing to the hearts and the lives 
of men, then this same great law of nature will 
come to assist you in your growth and develop- 
ment and efforts, and other things being 
equal, instead of singing to yourself or being 
anxious as to the size of your audience, you 
will seldom find time for the first, and your 
anxiety will be as to whether the place has an 
audience-chamber large enough to accommo- 
date even a small portion of the people who 



5 6 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



will seek admittance. You remember Jenny 
Lind. 

Is it your ambition to become a fashionable 
society woman, this and nothing more, intent 
only upon your own pleasure and satisfaction? 
Then stop and meditate, if only for a moment; 
for if this is the case, you never will, ay, you 
never can find the true and the genuine, for 
you fail to recognize the great law that there 
is no such thing as finding true happiness by 
searching for it directly, and the farther on 
you go the more flimsy and shallow and unsat- 
isfying that imitation you are willing to accept 
for the genuine will become. You will 
thereby rob life of its chief charms, defeat the 
very purpose you have in view. And, while 
you are at this moment meditating, oh grasp 
the truth of the great law that you will find 
your own life only in losing it in the service 
of others, — that the more of your life you so 
give, the fuller and the richer, the greater and 
the grander, the more beautiful and the more 
happy your own life will become. 

And with your abundant means and oppor- 
tunities build your life upon this great law of 
service, and experience the pleasure of growing 
into that full, rich, ever increasing and satis- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 57 



fying life that will result, and that will make 
you better known, more honored and blessed, 
than the life of any mere society woman can 
be, or any life, for that matter; for you are 
thus living a life the highest this world can 
know. And you will thus hasten the day 
when, standing and looking back and seeing 
the emptiness and the littleness of the other 
life as compared with this, you will bless the 
time that your better judgment prevailed and 
saved you from it. Or, if you chance to be 
in it already, delay not, but commence now to 
build upon this true foundation. 

Instead of discharging your footman, as did 
a woman of whom I chance to know, because 
he finally refused to stand in the rain by the 
side of her carriage, with his arms folded just 
so, standing immovable like a mummy (I had 
almost said like a fool), daring to look neither 
to one side nor the other, but all the time in 
the direction of her so-called ladyship, while 
she spent an hour or two in doing fifteen or 
twenty minutes' shopping in her desire to 
make it known that this is Mrs. Q. 's carriage, 
and this is the footman that goes with it, — 
instead of doing this, give him an umbrella 
if necessary, and take him to aid you as you 
go on your errands of mercy and cheer and 



5 8 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



service and loving kindness to the innumer- 
able ones all about you who so stand in need 
of them. 

Is there any comparison between the appel- 
lation "Lady Bountiful" and "a proud, self- 
ish, pleasure-seeking woman"? And, much 
more, do you think there is any comparison 
whatever between the real pleasure and hap- 
piness and satisfaction in the lives of the 
two ? 

Is if the ambition of your life to accumulate 
great wealth, and thus to acquire a great name, 
and along with it happiness and satisfaction? 
Then remember that whether these will come 
to you will depend entirely upon the use and 
disposition you make of your wealth. If you 
regard it as a private trust to be used for the 
highest good of mankind, then well and good, 
these will come to you. If your object, how- 
ever, is to pile it up, to hoard it, then neither 
will come; and you will find it a life as unsat- 
isfactory as one can live. 

There is, there can be, no greatness in 
things, in material things, of themselves. 
The greatness is determined entirely by the 
use and disposition made of them. The 
greatest greatness and the only true greatness 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 59 



in the world is unselfish love and service and 
self-devotion to one's fellow-men. 

Look at the matter carefully, and tell me 
candidly if there can be anything more foolish 
than a man's spending all the days of his life 
piling up and hoarding money, too mean and 
too stingy to use any but what is absolutely 
necessary, accumulating many times more 
than he can possibly ever use, always eager for 
more, growing still more eager and grasping 
the nearer he comes to life's end, then lying 
down, dying, and leaving it. It seems to me 
about as sensible for a man to have as the 
great aim and ambition of life the piling up 
of an immense pile of old iron in the middle 
of a large field, and sitting on it day after day 
because he is so wedded to it that it has be- 
come a part of his life and lest a fragment 
disappear, denying himself and those around 
him many of the things that go to make life 
valuable and pleasant, and finally dying there, 
himself, the soul, so dwarfed and so stunted 
that he has really a hard time to make his way 
out of the miserable old body. There is not 
such a great difference, if you will think of it 
carefully, — one a pile of old iron, the other 
a pile of gold or silver, but all belonging to 
the same general class. 



60 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



It is a great law of our being that we be- 
come like those things we contemplate. If we 
contemplate those that are true and noble and 
elevating, we grow in the likeness of these. 
If we contemplate merely material things, as 
gold or silver or copper or iron, our souls, 
our natures, and even our faces become like 
them, hard and flinty, robbed of their finer and 
better and grander qualities. Call to mind the 
person or picture of the miser, and you will 
quickly see that this is true. Merely nature's 
great law. He thought he was going to be 
a master: he finds himself the slave. Instead 
of possessing his wealth, his wealth possesses 
him. How often have I seen persons of 
nearly or quite this kind ! Some can be found 
almost anywhere. You can call "to mind a 
few, perhaps many. 

During the past two or three years two well- 
known millionaires in the United States, mill- 
ionaires man}' times over, have died. The 
one started into life with the idea of acquiring 
a great name by accumulating great wealth. 
These two things he had in mind, — self and 
great wealth. And, as he went on, he gradually 
became so that he could see nothing but these. 
The greed for gain soon made him more and 
more the slave; and he, knowing nothing other 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 6l 



than obedience to his master, piled and accu- 
mulated and hoarded, and after spending all 
his days thus, he then lay down and died, tak- 
ing not so much as one poor little penny 
with him, only a soul dwarfed compared to 
what it otherwise might have been. For it 
might have been the soul of a royal master 
instead of that of an abject slave. 

The papers noted his death with seldom 
even a single word of praise. It was regretted 
by few, and he was mourned by still fewer. 
And even at his death he was spoken of by 
thousands in words far from complimentary, 
all uniting in saying what he might have been 
and done, what a tremendous power for good, 
how he might have been loved and honored 
during his life, and at death mourned and 
blessed by the entire nation, the entire world. 
A pitiable sight, indeed, to see a human mind, 
a human soul, thus voluntarily enslave itself 
for a few temporary pieces of metal. 

The other started into life with the princi- 
ple that a man's success is to be measured by 
his direct usefulness to his fellow-men, to the 
world in which he lives, and by this alone; 
that private wealth is merely a private trust to 
be used for the highest good of mankind. 
Under the benign influences of this mighty 



62 WHAT ALL THE WORLDS A-SEEKING 



principle of service, we see him great, influ- 
ential, wealthy; his whole nature expanding, 
himself growing large-hearted, generous, mag- 
nanimous, serving his State, his country, his 
fellow-men, writing his name on the hearts of 
all he comes in contact with, so that his name 
is never thought of by them without feelings 
of gratitude and praise. 

Then as the chief service to his fellow-men, 
next to his own personal influence and exam- 
ple, he uses his vast fortune, this vast private 
trust, for the founding and endowing of a great 
institution of learning, using his splendid 
business capacities in its organization, having 
uppermost in mind in its building that young 
men and young women may there have every 
advantage at the least possible expense to fit 
themselves in turn for the greatest direct use- 
fulness to their fellow-men while they live in 
the world. 

In the midst of these activities the news 
comes of his death. Many hearts now are 
sad. The true, large-hearted, sympathizing 
friend, the servant of rich and poor alike, has 
gone away. Countless numbers whom he has 
befriended, encouraged, helped, and served, 
bless his name, and give thanks that such a life 
has been lived. His own great State rises up 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 63 



as his pall-bearers, while the entire nation 
acts as honorary pall-bearers. Who can esti- 
mate the influence of a life such as this? But 
it cannot be estimated; for it will flow from 
the ones personally influenced to others, and 
through them to others throughout eternity. 
He alone who in His righteous balance weighs 
each human act can estimate it. And his 
final munificent gift to mankind will make 
his name remembered and honored and blessed 
long after the accumulations of mere pluto- 
crats are scattered and mankind forgets that 
they have ever lived. 

Then have as your object the accumulation 
of great wealth if you choose; but bear in 
mind that, unless you are able to get beyond 
self, it will make you not great, but small, and 
you will rob life of the finer and better things 
in it. If, on the other hand, you are guided 
by the principle that private wealth is but a 
private trust, and that direct tisefulness or 
service to mankind is the only real measure 
of true greatness, and bring your life into 
harmony with it, then you will become and 
will be counted great; and with it will come 
that rich joy and happiness and satisfaction 
that always accompanies a life of true service, 
and therefore the best and truest life. 



64 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

One can never afford to forget that person- 
ality, life, and character, that there may be 
the greatest service, are the chief things, and 
wealth merely the incident. Nor can one 
afford to be among those who are too mean 
too small, or too stingy to invest in anything 
that will grow and increase these. 



PART III. 
THE UNFOLDMENT 



THE UNFOLDMENT. 



If you'd have a rare growth and unfoldment supreme, 
And make life one long joy and contentment complete, 

Then with kindliness, love, and good will let it teem, 
And with service for all make it fully replete. 

If you'd have all the world and all heaven to love you, 
And that love with its power would you fully convince, 

Then love all the world ; and men royal and true, 

Will make cry as you pass — "God bless him, the 
prince ! " 

One beautiful feature of this principle of 
love and service is that this phase of one's 
personality, or nature, can be grown. I have 
heard it asked, If one hasn't it to any marked 
degree naturally, what is to be done? In 
reply let it be said, Forget self, get out of it 
for a little while, and, as it comes in your 
way, do something for some one, some kind 
service, some loving favor, it makes no differ- 
ence how small it may appear. But a kind 
look or word to one weary with care, from 
whose life all worth living for seems to have 
gone out; a helping hand or little lift to one 
almost discouraged, — it may be that this is 



68 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

just the critical moment, a helping hand just 
now may change a life or a destiny. Show 
yourself a friend to one who thinks he or she 
is friendless. 

Oh, there are a thousand opportunities each 
day right where you are, — not the great things 
far away, but the little things right at hand. 
With a heart full of love do something: expe- 
rience the rich returns that will come to you, 
and it will be unnecessary to urge a repetition 
or a continuance. The next time it will be 
easier and more natural, and the next. You 
know of that wonderful reflex-nerve system you 
have in your body, — that which says that 
whenever you do a certain thing in a certain 
way, it is easier to do the same thing the next 
time, and the next, and the next, until pres- 
ently it is done with scarcely any effort on 
your part at all, it has become your second 
nature. And thus we have what? Habit. 
This is the way that all habit is, the way that 
all habit must be formed. And have you ever 
fully realized that life is, after all, merely a 
series of habits, and that it lies entirely 
within one's own power to determine just what 
that series shall be? 

I have seen this great principle made the 
foundation principle in an institution of learp 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 69 



ing. It is made not a theory merely as I have 
seen it here and there, but a vital, living 
truth. And I wish I had time to tell of its 
wonderful and beautiful influences upon the 
life and work of that institution, and upon the 
lives and the work of those who go out from 
it. A joy indeed to be there. One can't 
enter within its walls even for a few moments 
without feeling its benign influences. One 
can't go out without taking them with him. 
I have seen purposes and lives almost or quite 
transformed ; and life so rich, so beautiful, 
and so valuable opened up, such as the per- 
sons never dreamed could be, by being but a 
single year under these beautiful and life-giving 
influences. 

I have also seen it made the foundation 
principle of a great summer congress, one that 
has already done an unprecedented work, one 
that has a far greater work yet before it, and 
chiefly by reason of this all-powerful founda- 
tion upon which it is built, — conceived and 
put into operation as it was by a rare and 
highly illumined soul, one thoroughly filled 
with the love of service for all the human 
kind. There are no thoughts of money re- 
turns, for everything it has to give is as free 
as the beautiful atmosphere that pervades it. 



JO WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

The result is that there is drawn together, by 
way of its magnificent corps of lectures as well 
as those in attendance, a company of people of 
the rarest type, so that everywhere there is a 
manifestation of that spirit of love, helpful- 
ness, and kindliness, that permeates the entire 
atmosphere with a deep feeling of peace, that 
makes every moment of life a joy. 

So enchanting does this spirit make the 
place that very frequently the single day of 
some who have come for this length of time 
has lengthened itself into a week, and the 
week in turn into a month; and the single 
week of others has frequently lengthened it- 
self, first into a month, then into the entire 
summer. There is nothing at all strange in 
this fact, however; for wherever one finds sweet 
humanity, he there finds a spot where all people 
love to dwell. 

Making this the fundamental principle of 
one's life, around which all others properly 
arrange and subordinate themselves, is not, as 
a casual observer might think, and as he some- 
times suggests, an argument against one's own 
growth and development, against the highest 
possible unfoldment of his entire personality 
and powers. Rather, on the other hand, is it 
one of the greatest reasons, one of the greatest 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 7 1 

arguments, in its favor; for, the stronger the 
personality and the greater the powers, the 
greater the influence in the service of man- 
kind. If, then, life be thus founded, can 
there possibly be any greater incentive to that 
self-development that brings one up to his 
highest possibilities? A development merely 
for self alone can never have behind it an in- 
centive, a power so great ; and after all, there 
is nothing in the zvorld so great, so effective 
in the service of mankind, as a strong, noble, 
and beautiful manhood or womanhood. It is 
this that in the ultimate determines the influ- 
ence of every man upon his fellow-men. Life, 
character, is the greatest power in the world, 
and character it is that gives the power; for 
in all true power, along whatever line it may 
be, it is after all, living the life that tells. 
This is a great law that but few who would 
have great power and influence seem to recog- 
nize, or, at least, that but few seem to act 
upon. 

Are you a writer? You can never write 
more than you yourself are. Would you write 
more? Then broaden, deepen, enrich the life. 
Are you a minister? You can never raise 
men higher than you have raised yourself. 
Your words will have exactly the sound of the 



72 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



life whence they come. Hollow the life? 
Hollow-sounding and empty will be the words, 
weak, ineffective, false. Would you have 
them go with greater power, and thus be more 
effective? Live the life, the power will 
come. Are you an orator? The power and 
effectiveness of your words in influencing, and 
moving masses of men depends entirely upon 
the altitude from which they are spoken. 
Would you have them more effective, each one 
filled with a living power? Then elevate the 
life, the power will come. Are you in the 
walks of private life? Then, wherever you 
move, there goes from you, even if there be no 
word spoken, a silent but effective influence of 
an elevating or a degrading nature. Is the 
life high, beautiful? Then the influences are 
inspiring, life-giving. Is it low, devoid of 
beauty? The influences then, are disease 
laden, death-dealing. The tones of your 
voice, the attitude of your body, the character 
of your face, all are determined by the life 
you live, all in turn influence for better or for 
worse all who come within your radius. And 
if, as one of earth's great souls has said, 
the only way truly to help a man is to make 
him better, then the tremendous power of 
merely the life itself. 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 73 

Why, I know personally a young man of 
splendid qualities and gifts, who was rapidly 
on the way of ruin, as the term goes, gradually 
losing control of himself day after day, self- 
respect almost gone, — already the thought of 
taking his own life had entered his mind, — 
who was so inspired with the mere presence 
and bearing of a royal-hearted young man, 
one who had complete mastery of himself, and 
therefore a young man of power, that the very 
sight of him as he went to and fro in his daily 
work was a power that called his better self to 
the front again, awakened the God nature 
within him, so that he again set his face in 
the direction of the right, the true, the 
manly; and to-day there is no grander, 
stronger, more beautiful soul in all the wide 
country than he. Yes, there is a powerful 
influence that resolves itself into a service for 
all in each individual strong, pure, and noble 
life. 

And have the wonderful possibilities of 
what may be termed an inner or soul develop- 
ment ever come strongly to your notice? 
Perhaps not, for as yet only a few have begun 
to recognize under this name a certain great 
power that has always existed, — a power that 
has never as yet been fully understood, and so 



74 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



has been called by this term and by that. It 
is possible so to develop this soul power that, 
as we stand merely and talk with a person, 
there goes out from us a silent influence that 
the person cannot see or hear, but that he 
feels, and the influences of which he cannot 
escape; that, as we merely go into a room in 
which several persons are sitting, there goes 
out from us a power, a silent influence that all 
will feel and will be influenced by, even 
though not a word be spoken. This has been 
the power of every man, of every woman, of 
great and lasting influence in the world's 
history. 

It is just beginning to come to us through 
a few highly illumined souls that this power 
can be grown, that it rests upon great natural 
law that the Author of our being has insti- 
tuted within us and about us. It is during 
the next few years that we are to see many 
wonderful developments along this line; for in 
this, as in many others, the light is just be- 
ginning to break. A few, who are far up on 
the heights of human development, are just 
beginning to catch the first few faint flushes 
of the dawn. Then live to your highest. 
This of itself will make you of great ser- 
vice to mankind, but without this you never 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 75 



can be. Naught is the difference how hard 
you may try; and know, even so far as your 
own highest interests are concerned, that the 
true joy of existence comes from living to one's 
highest. 

This life, and this alone, will bring that 
which I believe to be one of the greatest 
characteristics of a truly great man, — humil- 
ity; and when one says humility, he neces- 
sarily implies simplicity; for the two always 
go hand in hand. The one is born of the 
other. The proud, the vain, the haughty, 
those striving for effect, are never counted 
among the world's greatest personages. The 
very fact of one's striving for effect of itself 
indicates that there is not enough in him to 
make him really great; while he who really 
is so needs never concern himself about it, 
nor does he ever. I " can think of no better 
way for one to attain to humility and sim- 
plicity than for him to have his mind off 
of self in the service of others. Vanity, that 
most dangerous quality, and especially for 
young people, is the outcome of one's always 
regarding self. 

Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher once said that, 
when they lived in the part of Brooklyn known 

as the Heights, they could always tell when 



76 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



Mr. Beecher was coming in the evening from 
the voices and the joyous laughter of the chil- 
dren. All the street urchins, as well as the 
more well-to-do children in the vicinity, knew 
him, and would often wait for his coming. 
When they saw him in the distance, they 
would run and gather around him, get hold of 
his hands, into those large overcoat pockets 
for the nuts and the good things he so often 
filled them with before starting for home, 
knowing as he did full well what was coming, 
tug at him to keep him with them as long as 
they could, he all the time laughing or run- 
ning as if to get away, never too great ay, 

rather let us say, great enough — to join with 
them in their sports. 

That mysterious dignity of a man less great, 
therefore with less of humility and simplicity, 
with mind always intent upon self and his own 
standing, would have told him that possibly 
this might not be just the "proper thing" to 
do. But even the children, street urchins as 
well as those well-to-do, found in this great 
loving soul a friend. Recall similar incidents 
in the almost daily life of Lincoln and in the 
lives of all truly great men. All have that 
beautiful and ever-powerful characteristic, 
that simple, childlike nature. 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD* S A-SEEKING 77 



Another most beautiful and valuable feature 
of this life is its effect upon one's own growth 
and development. There is a law which says 
that one can't do a kind act or a loving service 
for another without its bringing rich returns 
to his own life and growth. This is an in- 
variable law. Can I then, do a kind act or 
a loving service for a brother or a sister, — and 
all indeed are such because children of the 
same Father,— why, I should be glad — ay, 
doubly glad of the opportunity. If I do it 
thus out of love, forgetful of self, for aught I 
know it may do me more good than the one I 
do it for, in its influence upon the growing of 
that rich, beautiful, and happy life it is mine 
to grow; though the joy and satisfaction re- 
sulting from it, the highest, the sweetest, the 
keenest this life can know, are of themselves 
abundant rewards. 

In addition to all this it scarcely ever fails 
that those who are thus aided by some loving 
service may be in a position somehow, some- 
when, somewhere, either directly or indirectly, 
and at a time when it may be most needed or 
most highly appreciated, to do in turn a kind 
service for him who, with never a thought of 
any possible return, has dealt kindly with 
them. So 



/8 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



" Cast your bread upon the waters, far and wide your 

treasures strew, 
Scatter it with willing fingers, shout for joy to see it go ! 
You may think it lost forever ; but, as sure as God is 

true, 

In this life and in the other it will yet return to you." 

Have you sorrows or trials that seem very- 
heavy to bear? Then let me tell you that one 
of the best ways in the world to lighten and 
sweeten them is to lose yourself in the service 
of others, in helping to bear and lighten those 
of a fellow-being whose, perchance, are much 
more grievous than your own. It is a great 
law of your being which says you can do this. 
Try it, and experience the truth for yourself, 
and know that, when turned in this way, sor- 
row is the most beautiful soul-refiner of which 
the world knows, and hence not to be shunned, 
but to be welcomed and rightly turned. 

There comes to my mind a poor widow 
woman whose life would seem to have nothing 
in it to make it happy, but, on the other hand, 
cheerless and tiresome, and whose work would 
have been very hard, had it not been for a little 
crippled child she dearly loved and cared for, 
and who was all the more precious to her on 
account of its helplessness. Losing herself 
and forgetting her own hard lot in the care of 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 79 



the little cripple, her whole life was made 
cheerful and happy, and her work not hard, but 
easy, because lightened by love and service for 
another. And this is but one of innumerable 
cases of this kind. 

So you may turn your sorrows, you may 
lighten your burdens, by helping bear the bur- 
dens, if not of a crippled child, then of a 
brother or a sister who in another sense may 
be crippled, or who may become so but for 
your timely service. You can find them all 
about you : never pass one by. 

By building upon this principle, the poor 
may thus live as grandly and as happily as the 
rich, those in humble and lowly walks of 
life as grandly and as happily as those in what 
seem to be more exalted stations. Recogniz- 
ing the truth, as we certainly must by this 
time, that one is truly great only in so far as 
this is made the fundamental principle of his 
life, it becomes evident that that longing for 
greatness for its and for one's own sake falls 
away, and none but a diseased mind cares for 
it; for no sooner is it grasped than, as a 
bubble, it bursts, because it is not the true, 
the permanent, but the false, the transient. 
On the other hand, he who forgetting self 
and this kind of greatness, falsely so called, in 



SO WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING- 

the service of his fellow-men, by this very 
fact puts himself on the right track, the only 
track for the true, the genuine; and in what 
degree it will come to him depends entirely 
upon his adherence to the law. 

And do you know the influence of this life 
in the moulding of the features, that it gives 
the highest beauty that can dwell there, the 
beauty that comes from within, — the soul 
beauty, so often found in the paintings of the 
old masters. True beauty must come, must 
be grown, from within. That outward veneer- 
ing, which is so prevalent, can never be even 
a poor imitation of this type of the true, the 
genuine. To appreciate fully the truth of 
this, it is but necessary to look for a moment 
at that beautiful picture by Sant, the " Soul's 
Awakening,'' a face that grows more beautiful 
each time one looks at it, and that one never 
tires of looking at, and compare with it the 
fractional parts of apothecary shops we see 
now and then — or so often, to speak more 
truly — on the streets. A face of this higher 
type carries with it a benediction wherever 
it goes. 

A beautiful little incident came to my 
notice not long ago. It was a very hot and 
dusty day. The passengers on the train were 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 8 1 



weary and tired. The time seemed long and 
the journey cheerless. A lady with a face 
that carries a benediction to all who see her 
entered the car with a little girl, also of that 
type of beauty that comes from within, and 
with a voice musical, sweet, and sparkling, 
such as also comes from this source. 

The child, when they were seated, had no 
sooner spoken a few words before she began 
to enlist the attention of her fellow-passen- 
gers. She began playing peek-a-boo with a 
staid and dignified old gentleman in the seat 
behind her. He at first looked at her over his 
spectacles, then lowered his paper a little, 
then a little more, and a little more. Finally, 
he dropped it altogether, and, apparently for- 
getting himself and his surroundings, became 
oblivious to everything in the fascinating 
pleasure he was having with the little girl. 
The other passengers soon found themselves 
following his example. All papers and books 
were dropped. The younger. folks gave way to 
joyous laughter, and all seemed to vie with 
each other in having the honor of receiving a 
word or a smile from the little one. 

The dust, the heat, the tired, cheerless 
feelings were all forgotten; and when these 
two left the car, the little girl waving them 



82 WHAT ALL THE WORLD' S A- SEEKING 



good- by, instinctively, as one person, all the 
passengers waved it to her in return, and two 
otherwise dignified gentlemen, leaving their 
seats, passed over to the other side, and looked 
out of the window to see her as long as they 
could. Something as an electrical spark 
seemed to have passed through the car. All 
were light-hearted and happy now; and the 
conditions in the car, compared to what they 
were before these two entered, would rival the 
work of the stereopticon, so far as completeness 
of change is concerned. You have seen such 
faces and have heard such voices. They re- 
sult from a life the kind we are considering. 
They are but its outward manifestations, 
spontaneous as the water from the earth as 
it bursts forth a natural fountain. 

We must not fail also to notice the effect 
of this life upon one's manners and bearing. 
True politeness comes from a life founded 
upon this great principle, and from this alone. 
This gives the true gentleman, — gentle-man, 
— a man gentle, kind, loving, courteous from 
nature. Such a one can't have anything but 
true politeness, can't be anything but a 
gentle-man; for one can't truly be anything 
but himself. So the one always intent upon 
and thinking of self cannot be the true gentle- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 83 



man, notwithstanding the artful contrivances 
and studied efforts to appear so, but which so 
generally reveal his own shallowness and arti- 
ficiality, and disgust all with whom he comes 
in contact. 

I sometimes meet a person who, when in- 
troduced, will go through a series of stiff, 
cold, and angular movements, the knee at such 
a bend, the foot at such an angle, the back 
with such a bend or hump, — much less pleas- 
ant to see than that of a camel or a dromedary, 
for with these it is natural, — ■ so that I have 
found myself almost thinking, Poor fellow, I 
wonder what the trouble is, whether he will 
get over it all right. It is so very evident 
that he all the time has his mind upon him- 
self, wondering whether or not he is getting 
everything just right. What a relief to turn 
from such a one to one who, instead of think- 
ing always of self, has continually in mind the 
ease and comfort and pleasure he can give to 
others, who, in other words, is the true 
gentle-man, and with whom true politeness is 
natural; for one's every act is born of his 
thoughts. 

It is said that there was no truer gentleman 
in all Scotland than Robert Burns. And yet 
he was a farmer all his life, and had never 



84 WHAT ALL THE WORLD* S A-SEEKING 



been away from his native little rural village 
into a city until near the close of his life, 
when, taking the manuscripts that for some 
time had been accumulating in the drawer of 
his writing-table up to Edinburgh, he capti- 
vated the hearts of all in the capital. With- 
out studied contrivances, he was the true gen- 
tleman, and true politeness was his, because 
his life was founded upon the principle that 
continually brought from his pen lines such 
as : — 

" It's coming yet, for a' that, 
That man to man, the warld o'er, 
Shall brothers be for a' that ! " 

And under the influence of this principle, 
he was a gentleman by nature, and one of nat- 
ure's noblemen, without ever thinking whether 
he was or not, as he who is truly such never 
needs to and never does. 

And then recall the large-hearted Ben 
Franklin, when sent to the French court. In 
his plain gray clothes, unassuming and en- 
tirely forgetful of himself, how he captured 
the hearts of all, of even the giddy society 
ladies, and how he became and remained while 
there the centre of attraction in that gay capi- 
tal ! His politeness, his manners, all the 
result of that great, kind, loving, and helpful 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD* S A-SEEKING 85 



nature which made others feel that it was they 
he was devoting himself to, and not himself. 

This little extract from a letter written by 
Franklin to George Whitefield will show how 
he regarded the great principle we are consid- 
ering: "As to the kindness you mention, I 
wish it could have been of more service to you. 
But, if it had, the only thanks I should desire 
is that you would always be equally ready to 
serve any other person that may need your 
assistance; and so let good offices go around, 
for mankind are all of a family. For my 
own part, when I am employed in serving 
others, I do not look upon myself as confer- 
ring favors, but as paying debts. In my 
travels, and since my settlement, I have re- 
ceived much kindness from men to whom I 
shall never have any opportunity of making 
any direct return, and numberless mercies 
from God, who is infinitely above being bene- 
fited by our services. These kindnesses from 
men I can, therefore, only return on their 
fellow-men; and I can only show my gratitude 
for these mercies from God by a readiness to 
help his other children and my brethren. 

No, true gentlemanliness and politeness al 
ways comes from within, and is born of a life 
of love, kindliness, and service. This is the 



86 WHAT ALL THE WORLD' S A -SEEKING 



universal language, known and understood 
everywhere, even when our words are not. 
There is, you know, a beautiful old proverb 
which says, "He who is kind and courteous to 
strangers thereby shows himself a citizen of 
the world. " And there is nothing so remem- 
bered, and that so endears one to all mankind, 
as this universal language. Even dumb ani- 
mals understand it and are affected by it. 
How quickly the dog, for example, knows and 
makes it known when he is spoken to and 
treated kindly or the reverse ! And here 
shall not a word be spoken in connection with 
that great body of our fellow-creatures whom, 
because we do not understand their language, 
we are accustomed to call dumb? The atti- 
tude we have assumed toward these fellow- 
creatures, and the treatment they have been 
subjected to in the past, is something almost 
appalling. 

There are a number of reasons why this has 
been true. Has not one been on account of 
a belief in a future life for man, but not for 
the animal ? A few years ago a gentleman left 
by will some fifty thousand dollars for the 
work of Henry Bergh's New York Society. 
His relatives contested the will on the ground 
of insanity, — on the ground of insanity be- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 87 



cause he believed in a future life for animals. 
The judge, in giving his decision sustaining 
the will, stated that after a very careful in- 
vestigation, he found that fully half the world 
shared the same belief. Agassiz thoroughly 
believed it. An English writer has recently 
compiled a list of over one hundred and 
seventy English authors who have so thor- 
oughly believed it as to write upon the sub- 
ject. The same belief has been shared by 
many of the greatest thinkers in all parts of 
the world, and it is a belief that is constantly 
gaining ground. 

Another and perhaps the chief cause has 
been on account of a supposed inferior degree 
of intelligence on the part of animals, which 
in another form would mean, that they are 
less able to care for and protect themselves. 
Should this, however, be a reason why they 
should be neglected and cruelly treated? 
Nay, on the other hand, should this not be the 
greatest reason why we should all the more 
zealously care for, protect, and kindly treat 
them ? 

You or I may have a brother or a sister who 
is not normally endowed as to brain power, 
who, perchance, may be idiotic or insane, or 
who, through sickness or mishap, is weak- 



♦ 

0- 



88 WHAT ALL THE WORLD ' S A-SEEKLNG 



minded; but do we make this an excuse for 
neglecting, cruelly treating, or failing to love 
such a one? On the contrary, the very fact 
that he or she is not so able to plan for, care 
for, and protect him or her self, is all the 
greater reason for all the more careful exercise 
of these functions on our part. But, certainly, 
there are many animals around us with far 
more intelligence, at least manifested intelli- 
gence, than this brother or sister. The par- 
allel holds, but the absurd falsity of the posi- 
tion we assume is most apparent. No truer 
nobility of character can anywhere manifest 
itself than is shown in one's attitude 
toward and treatment of those weaker or the 
so-called inferior, and so with less power to 
care for and protect themselves. Moreover, I 
think we shall find that we are many times 
mistaken in regard to our beliefs in connec- 
tion with the inferior intelligence of at least 
many animals. If, instead of using them 
simply to serve our own selfish ends without a 
just recompense, without a thought further 
than as to what we can get out of them, and 
then many times casting them off when broken 
or of no further service, and many times look- 
ing down upon, neglecting, or even abusing 
them,— if, instead of this, we would deal 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD' S A-SEEKING 89 



equitably with them, love them, train and 
educate them the same as we do our children, 
we would be somewhat surprised at the re- 
markable degree of intelligence the "dumb 
brutes" possess, and also the remarkable de- 
gree of training they are capable of. What, 
however, can be expected of them when we 
take the attitude we at present hold toward 
them ? 

Page after page might readily be filled with 
most interesting as well as inspiring por- 
trayals of their superior intelligence, their 
remarkable capabilities under kind and judi- 
cious training, their fait J if illness and devotion. 
The efforts of such noble and devoted workers 
as Henry Bergh in New York, of George T. 
Angell in Massachusetts, and many others in 
various parts of the country, have already 
brought about a great change in our attitude 
toward and relations with this great body of 
our fellow-creatures, and have made all the 
world more thoughtful, considerate, and kind. 
This, however, is just the beginning of a 
work that is assuming greater and ever 
greater proportions. 

The work of the American Humane Educa- 
tion Society* is probably surpassed in its 

* Headquarters at Boston, Mass. 



90 WHAT ALL THE WORLD* S A-SEEKING 



vitality and far-reaching results by the work 
of no other society in the world to-day. Its 
chief object is the humane education of the 
American people; and through one phase of 
its work alone — its Bands of Mercy, over 
twenty-five thousand of which have already 
been formed, giving regular, systematic hu- 
mane training and instruction to between one 
and two million children, and these continu- 
ally increasing in numbers — a most vital work 
is being done, such as no man can estimate. 

The humane sentiment inculcated in one's 
relations with the animal world, and its result- 
ant feelings of sympathy, tenderness, love, 
and care, will inevitably manifest itself in 
one's relations with his fellows; and I for 
one, would rejoice to see this work carried 
into every school throughout the length and 
breadth of the land. In many cases this one 
phase of the child's training would be of far 
more vital value and import as he grows to 
manhood than all the rest of the schooling 
combined, and it would form a most vital en- 
tering wedge in the solution of our social situ- 
ation. 

And why should we not speak to and kindly 
greet an animal as we pass it, as instinctively 
as we do a human fellow-being? Though it 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD 's A -SEEKING 9 1 



may not get our words, it will invariably get 
the attitude and the motive that prompts 
them, and will be affected accordingly. This 
it will do every time. Animals in general 
are marvellously sensitive to the mental con- 
ditions, the thought forces, and emotions of 
people. Some are peculiarly sensitive, and 
can detect them far more quickly and uner- 
ringly than many people can. 

It ought to help us greatly m our relations 
with them ever fully to realize that they with 
us are parts of the one Universal Life, simply 
different forms of the manifestation of the 
One Life, having their part to play in the 
economy of the great universe the same as we 
have ours, having their destiny to work out 
the same as we have ours, and just as impor- 
tant, just as valuable, in the sight of the All 
in All as we ourselves. 

"I saw deep in the eyes of the animals the 
human soul look out upon me. 

"I saw where it was born deep down under 
feathers and fur, or condemned for a while to 
roam four-footed among the brambles. I 
caught the clinging mute glance of the pris- 
oner, and swore I would be faithful. 

"Thee my brother and sister I see, and 
mistake not. Do not be afraid. Dwelling 



92 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



thus for a while, fulfilling thy appointed time, 
thou, too, shall come to thyself at last. 

"Thy half-warm horns and long tongue lap- 
ping round my wrist do not conceal thy hu- 
manity any more than the learned talk of the 
pedant conceals his, — for all thou art dumb, 
we have words and plenty between us. 

"Come nigh, little bird, with your half- 
stretched quivering wings, — within you I be- 
hold choirs of angels, and the Lord himself 
in vista. " * 

But a small thing, apparently, is a kind 
look, word, or service of some kind; but, oh! 
who can tell where it may end? It costs the 
giver comparatively nothing; but who can tell 
the priceless value to "him who receives it? 
The cup of loving service, be it merely a cup of 
cold water, may grow and swell into a bound- 
less river, refreshing and carrying life and 
hope in turn to numberless others, and these 
to others, and so have no end. This may be 
just the critical moment in some life. Given 
now, it may save or change a life or a destiny. 
So don't withhold the bread that's in your 
keeping, but 

" Scatter it with willing fingers, shout for joy to see 
it go." 

* Toward Democracy. 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 93 

• i 

There is no greater thing in life that you 
can do, and nothing that will bring you such 
rich and precious returns. 

The question is sometimes asked, How can 
one feel a deep and genuine love, a love suffi- 
cient to manifest itself in service for all ? — 
there are some so mean, so small, with so 
many peculiar, objectionable, or even obnox- 
ious characteristics. True, very true, appar- 
ently at least; but another great law of life is 
that we find in men and women exactly those 
qualities, those characteristics, we look for, or 
that are nearest akin to the predominant 
qualities or characteristics of our own natures. 
If we look for the peculiar, the little, the ob- 
jectionable, these we shall find; but back of 
all this, all that is most apparent on the ex- 
terior, in the depths of each and every human 
soul, is the good, the true, the brave, the 
loving, the divine, the God-like, that that 
never changes, the very God Himself that at 
some time or another will show forth His 
full likeness. 

And still another law of life is that others 
usually manifest to us that which our own 
natures, or, in other words, our own thoughts 
and emotions, call forth. The same person, 
for example, will come to two different people 



94 WHAT ALL THE WORLD 's A-SEEKING 



in an entirely different way, because the 
larger, better, purer, and more universal 
nature of the one calls forth the best, the 
noblest, the truest in him; while the smaller, 
critical, personal nature of the other calls 
forth the opposite. The wise man is there- 
fore careful in regard to what he has to say 
concerning this or that one; for, generally 
speaking, it is a sad commentary upon one's 
self if he find only the disagreeable, the ob- 
jectionable. One lives always in the atmos- 
pliere of his owii creation. 

Again, it is sometimes said, But such a one 
has such and such habits or has done so and 
so, has committed such and such an error or 
such and such a crime. But who, let it 
be asked, constituted me a judge of my fellow- 
man ? Do I not recognize the fact that the 
moment I judge my fellow-man, by that very 
act I judge myself? One of two things, I 
either judge myself or hypocritically profess 
that never once in my entire life have I com- 
mitted a sin, an error of any kind, never have 
I stumbled, never fallen, and by that very pro- 
fession I pronounce myself at once either a 
fool or a knave, or both. 

Again, it is said, But even for the sake of 
helping, of doing some service, I could not 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 95 

for my own sake, for character's, for reputa- 
tion's sake, I could not afford even to be seen 
with such a one. What would people, what 
would my friends, think and say? True, ap- 
parently at least, but, if my life, my character, 
has such a foundation, a foundation so weak, 
so uncertain, so tottering, as to be affected by 
anything of this kind, I had better then look 
well to it, and quietly, quickly, but securely, 
begin to rebuild it ; and, when I am sure that 
it is upon the true, deep, substantial founda- 
tion, the only additional thing then necessary 
is for me to reach that glorious stage of de- 
velopment which quickly gets one out of the 
personal into the universal, or rather that in- 
dicates that he is already out of the one and 
into the other, when he can say: They think. 
What do they think ? Let them think. They 
say. What do they say? Let them say. 

And, then, the supreme charity one should 
have, when he realizes the fact that the great 
bulk of the sin and error in the world is com- 
mitted not through choice, but through igno- 
rance. Not that the person does not know 
many times that this or that course of action 
is wrong, that it is wrong to commit this 
error or sin or crime; but the ignorance comes 
in his belief that in this course of conduct he 



g6 WHAT ALL THE WORLD 's A-SEEKING 



is deriving pleasure and happiness, and his 
ignorance of the fact that through a different 
course of conduct he would derive a pleasure, 
a happiness, much keener, higher, more satis- 
fying and enduring. 

Never should we forget that we are all the 
same in motive, — pleasure and happiness: 
we differ only in method; and this difference 
in method is solely by reason of some souls 
being at any particular time more fully 
evolved, and thus having a greater knowledge 
of the great, immutable laws under which we 
live, and by putting the life into more and 
ever more complete harmony with these 
higher laws and forces, and in this way bring- 
ing about the highest, the keenest, the most 
abiding pleasure and happiness instead of 
seeking it on the lower planes. 

While all are the same in essence, all a 
part of the One Infinite, Eternal, all with the 
same latent possibilities, all reaching ulti- 
mately the same place, it nevertheless is true 
that at any particular time some are more fully 
awakened, evolved, unfolded. One should 
also be careful, if life is continuous, eternal, 
how he judges any particular life merely from 
these threescore years and ten; for the very 
fact of life, in whatever form, means contin- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 97 



ual activity, growth, advancement, unfold- 
ment, attainment, and, if there is the one, 
there must of necessity be the other. So in 
regard to this one or that one, no fears need 
be entertained. 

By the door of my woodland cabin stood 
during the summer a magnificent tube-rose 
stock. The day was when it was just putting 
into bloom; and then I counted buds — latent 
I flowers — to the number of over a score. 
Some eight or ten one morning were in full 
bloom. The ones nearer the top did not 
! bloom forth until some two and three weeks 
! later, and for some it took quite a month to 
reach the fully perfected stage. These cer- 
tainly were not so beautiful, so satisfying, as 
those already in the perfect bloom, those that 
had already reached their highest perfection. 
But should they on this account be despised? 
Wait, wait and give the element of time an 
opportunity of doing its work; and you may 
find that by and by, when these have reached 
their highest perfection, they may even far 
transcend in beauty and in fragrance those at 
present so beautiful, so fragrant, so satisfy- 
ing, those that we so much admire. 

Here we recognize the element of time. 
How foolish, how childish, how puerile, to 



98 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

fail or even refuse to do the same when it 
comes to the human soul, with all its God- 
like possibilities! And, again, how foolish, 
because some of the blooms on the rose stock 
had not reached their perfection as soon as 
others, to have pronounced them of no value, 
unworthy, and to have refused them the dews, 
the warm rains, the life-giving sunshine, the 
very agencies that hastened their perfected 
growth! Yet this puerile, unbalanced atti- 
tude is that taken by untold numbers in the 
world to-day toward many human souls on ac- 
count of their less mature unfoldment at any 
given time. 

Why, the very fact that a fellow-man and a 
brother has this or that fault, error, unde- 
sirable or objectionable characteristic, is of 
itself the very reason he needs all the more of 
charity, of love, of kindly help and aid, than 
is needed by the one more fully developed, 
and hence more free from these. All the 
more reason is there why the best in him 
should be recognized and ever called to the 
front. 

The wise man is he who, when he desires 
to rid a room of darkness or gloom, does not 
attempt to drive it out directly, but who 
throws open the doors and the windows, that 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 99 

the room may be flooded with the golden sun- 
light; for in its presence darkness and gloom 
cannot remain. So the way to help a fellow- 
man and a brother to the higher and better 
life is not by ever prating upon and holding 
up to view his errors, his faults, his shortcom- 
ings, any more than in the case of children, 
but by recognizing and ever calling forth the 
higher, the nobler, the divine, the God-like, 
by opening the doors and the windows of his 
own soul, and thus bringing about a spiritual 
perception, that he may the more carefully 
listen to the inner voice, that he may the 
more carefully follow "the light that lighteth 
every man that cometh into the world. " For 
in the exact proportion that the interior per- 
ception comes will the outer life and conduct 
accord with it, — so far, and no farther. 

Where in all the world's history is to be 
found a more beautiful or valuable incident 
than this? A group of men, self-centred, 
self-assertive, have found a poor woman who, 
in her blindness and weakness, has com- 
mitted an error, the same one that they, in 
all probability, have committed not once, but 
many times; for the ride is that they are first 
to condemn who are most at fault themselves. 
They bring her to the Master, they tell him 



IOO WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

that she has committed a sin, — ay, more, that 
she has been taken in the very act, — and ask 
what shall be done with her, informing him 
that, in accordance with the olden laws, such 
a one should be stoned. 

But, quicker than thought, that great incar- 
nation of spiritual power and insight reads ' 
their motives ; and, after allowing them to give 
full expression to their accusations, he turns, 
and calmly says, " He among you that is with- 
out sin, let him cast the first stone." So say- 
ing, he stoops down, as if he is writing in 
the sand. The accusers, feeling the keen and 
just rebuke, in the mean time sneak out, until 
not one remains. The Master, after all have 
gone, turns to the woman, his sister, and 
kindly and gently says, "And where are thine 
accusers? doth no man condemn thee? " "No j 
man, Lord." " And neither do I condemn j 
thee: go thou, and sin no more." Oh, the 
beauty, the soul pathos! Oh, the royal- 
hearted brother I Oh, the invaluable lesson 
to us all ! 

I have no doubt that this gentle, loving ad- 
monition, this calling of the higher and the i 
better to the front, set into operation in her 
interior nature forces that hastened her prog- 
ress from the purely animal, the unsatisfying, 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING IOI 



the diminishing, to the higher spiritual, the 
| satisfying, the ever-increasing, or, even more, 
that made it instantaneous, but that in either 
case brought about the new birth, — the new 
birth that comes with the awakening of the 
j soul out of its purely physical sense-life 
to the higher spiritual perception and knowl- 
| edge of itself, and thus the birth of the higher 
out of the lower, as at some time or another 
comes to each and every human soul. 

And still another fact that should make us 
\ most charitable toward and slow to judge, or 
rather refuse to judge, a fellow-man and a 
! brother, — the fact that we cannot know the 
! intense strugglings and fightings he or she 
f may be subjected to, though accompanied, it 
is true, by numerous stumblings and fallings, 
I though the latter we see, while the former we 
fail to recognize. Did we, however, know the 
truth of the matter, it may be that in the case 
of ourselves, who are so quick to judge, had 
we the same temptations and fightings, the 
! battle would not be half so nobly, so manfully 
fought, and our stumblings and fallings might 
be many times the number of his or of hers. 
I Had we infinite knowledge and wisdom, our 
! judgments would be correct; though, had we 
infinite knowledge and wisdom, we would be 



102 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEK1NG 

spared the task, though perhaps pleasure 
would seem to be the truer word to use, of 
our own self-imposed judgments. 

Even so, then, if I cannot give myself in 
thorough love and service and self-devotion 
to each and all of the Father's other children, 
to every brother, no matter what the rank, 
station, or apparent condition, it shows that 
at least one of several things is radically 
wrong with self; and it also indicates that I 
shall never know the full and supreme joy of 
existence until I am able to and until I regard 
each case in the light of a rare and golden op- 
portunity, in which I take a supreme delight. 

Although what has just been said is true, 
at the same time there are occasions when it 
must be taken with wise discretion; and, al- 
though there are things it may be right for me 
to do for the sake of helping another life, at 
the same time there are things it may be un- 
wise for me to do. I have sympathy for a 
friend who is lying in the gutter; but it would 
be very unwise for me to get myself into the 
same condition, and go and lie with him, 
thinking that only thus I could show my full- 
est sympathy, and be of greatest help to him. 
On the contrary, it is only as I stand on the 
higher ground that I am able to reach forth 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING IO3 

the hand that will truly lift him up. The 
moment I sink myself to the same level, my 
power to help ceases. 

Just as unwise, to use a familiar example, 
far more unwise, would it be for me, were I a 
woman, to think of marrying a man who is a 
drunkard or a libertine, thinking that because 
I may love him I shall be able to reform him. 
In the first place, I should find that the de- 
sired results could not be accomplished in this 
way, or, rather, no results that could not be ac- 
complished, and far more readily accomplished 
otherwise, and at far less expense. In the 
second place, I could not afford to subject my- 
self to the demands, the influences, of one 
such, and so either sink myself to his level 
or, if not, then be compelled to use the greater 
part of my time, thought, and energy in dem- 
onstrating over existing conditions, and keep- 
ing myself true to the higher life, the same 
time that might be used in helping the lives 
of many others. If I sink myself to his 
level, I do not help, but aid all the more in 
dragging him down, or, if I do not sink to his 
level, then in the degree that I approach it do 
I lose my power over and influence with that 
life. Especially would it be unwise on my 
part if on his part there is no real desire for a 



104 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



different course, and no manifest endeavor to 
attain to it. Many times it seems necessary 
for such a one to wallow in the deepest of the 
mire, until, to use a commonplace phrase, he 
has his fill. He will then be ready to come 
out, will then be open to influence. I in the 
mean time, instead of entering into the mire 
with him, instead of subjecting my life to his 
influences, will stand up on the higher ground, 
and will ever point him upward, will ever 
reach forth a hand to help him upward, and 
will thus subject him to the higher influences; 
and, by preserving myself in this attitude, I 
can do the same for many other lives. In it 
all there will be no bitterness, no condemna- 
tion, no casting off, but the highest charity, 
sympathy and love; and it is only by this 
method that I can manifest the highest, only 
by this method that I can the most truly aid, 
for only as I am lifted up can I draw others 
unto me. 

In this matter of service, as in all other 
matters, that supreme regulator of human life 
and conduct — good common sense — must 
always be used. There are some natures, for 
example, whom the more we would do for, the 
more we would have to do for, who, in other 
words, would become dependent, losing their 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING IO5 

sense of self-dependence. .For such the high- 
est service one can render is as judiciously 
and as indirectly as possible to lead them to 
the sense of self-reliance. Then there are 
others whose natures are such that, the more 
they are helped, the more they expect, the 
more they demand, even as their right, who, 
in other words, are parasites or vultures of 
the human kind. In this case, again, the 
greatest service that can be rendered may be 
a refusal of service, a refusal of aid in the 
ordinary or rather expected forms, and a still 
greater service in the form of teaching them 
that great principle of justice, of compensa- 
tion, that runs through all the universe, — 
that for every service there must be in some 
form or another an adequate service in return, 
that the law of compensation in one form or 
another is absolute, and, in fact, the greatest 
forms of service we can render any one are, 
generally speaking, along the lines of teach- 
ing him the great laws of his own being, the 
great laws of his true possibilities and powers, 
and so the great laws of self-help. 

And, again, it is possible for one whose 
heart goes out in love and service for all, and 
who, by virtue of lacking that long range of 
vision or by virtue of not having a grasp of 



I06 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



things in then entirety or wholeness, may 
have his time, his energies so dissipated in 
what seems to be the highest service that he 
is continually kept from his own highest un- 
foldment, powers, and possessions, the very 
things that in their completeness would make 
him a thousand-fold more effective and power- 
ful in his own life, and hence in the life of 
real service and influence. And, in a case of 
this kind, many times the mark of the most 
absolute unselfishness is a strong and marked 
selfishness, which will prove however to be a 
selfishness only in the seeming. 

The self should never be lost sight of. It 
is the one thing of supreme importance > the 
greatest factor even in the life of the greatest 
service. Being always and necessarily pre- 
cedes doing: having always and necessarily 
precedes giving. But this law also holds: 
that when there is the being, it is all the 
more increased by the doing; when there is 
the having, it is all the more increased by the 
giving. Keeping to one's self dwarfs and 
stultifies. Hoarding brings loss : using brings 
even greater gain. In brief, the more we are, 
the more we can do; the more we have, the 
more we can give. 

The most truly successful, the most power- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING \Oj 



ful and valuable life, then, is the life that is 
first founded upon this great, immutable law 
of love and service, and that then becomes 
supremely self-centred, — supremely self-cen- 
tred that it may become all the more su- 
premely unself-centred; in other words, the 
life that looks well to self, that there may be 
the ever greater self, in order that there may 
be the ever greater service. 



PART IV. 
THE AWAKENING 



THE AWAKENING. 



If you'd live a religion that's noble, 

That's God-like and true, 
A religion the grandest that men 

Or that angels can, 
Then live, live the truth 

Of the brother who taught you,, 
It's love to God, service and love 

To the fellow-man. 

Social problems are to be among the great- 
est problems of the generation just moving 
on to the stage of action. They, above all 
others, will claim the attention of mankind, 
as they are already claiming it across the 
waters even as at home. The attitude of the 
two classes toward each other, or the separa- 
tion of the classes, will be by far the chief 
problem of them all. Already it is impera- 
tively demanding a solution. Gradually, as 
the years have passed, this separation has been 
going on, but never so rapidly as of late. 
Each has come to regard the other as an enemy, 
with no interests in common, but rather that 
what is for the interests of the one must nec- 
essarily be to the detriment of the other. 



Jul 1S 1901 



112 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



The great masses of the people, the working 
classes, those who as much, if not more than 
many others ought to be there, are not in our 
churches to-day. They already feel that they 
are not wanted there, and that the Church even 
is getting to be their enemy. There must be 
a reason for this, for it is impossible to have 
an effect without its preceding cause. It is 
indeed time to waken up to these facts and 
conditions; for they must be squarely met. 
A solution is imperatively demanded, and the 
sooner it comes, the better; for, if allowed to 
continue thus, all will come back to be paid 
for, intensified a thousand-fold,— ay, to be 
paid for even by many innocent ones. 

Let this great principle of service, helpful- 
ness, love, and self-devotion to the interests 
of one's fellow-men be made the fundamental 
principle of all lives, and see how simplified 
these great and all-important questions will 
become. Indeed, they will almost solve them- 
selves. It is the man all for self, so small and 
so short sighted that he can't get beyond his 
own selfish interests, that has done more to 
bring about this state of affairs than all other 
causes combined. Let the cause be removed, 
and then note the results. 

For many years it has been a teaching even 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 1 3 

of political economy that an employer buys 
his help just as he buys his raw material or 
any other commodity; and this done, he is in 
no way responsible for the welfare of those he 
employs. In fact, the time isn't so far dis- 
tant when the employed were herded together 
as animals, and were treated very much as 
such. But, thanks be to God, a better and a 
brighter day is dawning. Even the employer 
is beginning to see that practical ethics, or 
true Christianity, and business cannot and 
must not be divorced ; that the man he em- 
ploys, instead of being a mere animal whose 
services he buys, is, after all his fellow-man 
and his brother, and demands a treatment as 
such, and that when he fails to recognize this 
truth, a righteous God steps in, demanding a 
penalty for its violation. 

He is recognizing the fact that whatsoever 
is for the well-being of the one he employs, 
that whatever privileges he is enabled to enjoy 
that will tend to grow and develop his physi- 
cal, his mental, and his mora] life, that will 
give him an agreeable home and pleasant fam- 
ily relations, that whatever influences tend 
to elevate him and to make his life more 
happy, are a direct gain, even from a financial 
standpoint for himself, by its increasing for 



114 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

him the efficiency of the man's labor. It is 
already recognized as a fact that the employer 
who interests himself in these things, other 
things being equal, is the most successful. 
Thus the old and the false are breaking away 
before the right and the true, as all inevitably 
must sooner or later ; and the divinity and the 
power of the workingman is being ever more 
fully recognized. 

In the very remote history of the race there 
was one who, violating a great law, having 
wronged a brother, asked, "Am I my brother's 
keeper?" Knowing that he was, he never- 
theless deceitfully put the question in this 
way in his desire, if possible, to avoid the 
responsibility. Many employers in their self- 
ishness and greed for gain have asked this 
same question in this same way. They have 
thought they could thus defeat the sure and 
eternal laws of a Just Ruler, but have thereby 
deceived themselves the more. These more 
than any others have to a great degree brought 
about the present state of affairs in the indus- 
trial and social world. 

Just as soon as the employer recognizes the 
falsity of these old teachings and practices, 
and the fact that he cannot buy his employee's 
services the same as he buys his raw material, 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING I 1 5 



with no further responsibility, but that the 
two are on vastly different planes, that his 
employee is his fellow-man and his brother, 
and that he is his brother's keeper, and will 
be held responsible as such, that it is to his 
own highest interests, as well as to the high- 
est interests of those he employs and to so- 
ciety in general, to recognize this; and just 
as soon as he who is employed fully appre- 
ciates his opportunities and makes the highest 
use of all, and in turn takes an active, per- 
sonal interest in all that pertains to his em- 
ployer's welfare, — just that soon will a solu- 
tion of this great question come forth, and no 
sooner. 

It is not so much a question of legislation 
as of education and right doing, thus a deal- 
ing with the i7idividnal, and so a prevention 
and a cure, not merely a suppression and a 
regulation, which is always sure to fail; for, 
in a case of right or wrong no question s ever 
settled finally until it is settled rightly. 

The individual, dealing with the individual 
is necessarily at the bottom of all true social 
progress. There can't be anything worthy 
the name without it. The truth will at once 
be recognized by all that the good of the whole 
depends upon the good of each, and the good of 



Il6 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

each makes the good of the whole. Attend, 
then, to the individual, and the whole will 
take care of itself. Let each individual work 
in harmony with every other, and harmony 
will pervade the whole. The old theory of 
competition — that in order to have great 
advancement, great progress, we must have 
great competition to induce it — is as false as 
it is savage and detrimental in its nature. 
We are just reaching that point where the 
larger men and women are beginning to see 
its falsity. They are recognizing the fact 
that, not competition, but co-operation, reciproc- 
ity, is the great, the true power, — to climb, 
not by attempting to drag, to keep down one's 
fellows, but by aiding them, and being in 
turn aided by them, thus combining, and so 
multiplying the power of all instead of wast- 
ing a large part one against the other. 

And grant that a portion do succeed in ris- 
ing, while the other portion remain in the 
lower condition, it is of but little value so far 
as their own peace and welfare are concerned ; 
for they can never be what they would be, were 
all up together. Each is but a part, a mem- 
ber, of the great civil body; and no member, 
let alone the entire body, can be perfectly 
well, perfectly at ease, when any other part is 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING \\*J 

in dis-ease. No one part of the community, 
no one part of the nation, can stand alone: 
all are dependent, interdependent. This is 
the uniform teaching of history from the re- 
motest times in the past right through to the 
present. A most admirable illustration of 
this fact — if indeed the word "admirable" 
can be used in connection with a matter so de- 
plorable — was the unparalleled labor trouble 
we had in our great Western city but a few 
summers ago. The wise man is he who 
learns from experiences of this terrific nature. 

No, not until this all-powerful principle is 
fully recognized, and is built upon so thor- 
oughly that the brotherhood principle, the 
principle of oneness can enter in, and each 
one recognizes the fact that his own interests 
and welfare depend upon the interests, the 
welfare of each, and therefore of all, that each 
is but a part of the one great whole, and each 
one stands shoulder to shoulder in the advance 
forward, can we hope for any true solution of 
the great social problems before us, for any 
permanent elevation of the standard in our 
national social life and welfare. 

This same principle is the solution, and the 
only true solution, of the charities question, as 
indeed the whole world during the last few 



Il8 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

years or so, and during this time only, is be* 
ginning to realize. And the splendid and effi 
cient work of the organized charities in all 
our large cities, as of the Elberfeld system in 
Germany, is attesting the truth of this. Al- 
most numberless methods have been tried dur- 
ing the past, but all have most successfully 
failed; and many have greatly increased the 
wretched condition of matters, and of those it 
was designed to help. During this length of 
time only have these all-important questions 
been dealt with in a true, scientific, Christ- 
like, common-sense way. It has been found 
even here that nothing can take the place of 
the personal and friendly influences of a life 
built upon this principle of service. 

The question of aiding the poor and needy 
has passed through three distinct phases of 
development in the world's history. In early 
times it was, "Each one for himself, and the 
devil take the hindmost." From the time of 
the Christ, and up to the last few years it has 
been, " Help others." Now it is, " Help others 
to help themselves." The wealthy society lady 
going down Fifth Avenue in New York, or 
Michigan Avenue in Chicago, or Charles Street 
in Baltimore, or Commonwealth Avenue in 
Boston, who flings a coin to one asking 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 119 



alms, is not the one who is doing a true act 
of charity ; but, on the other hand, she may 
be doing the one she thus gives to and 
to society in general much more harm than 
good, as is many times the case. It is but 
a cheap, a very cheap way of buying ease 
for her sympathetic nature or her sense of 
duty. Never let the word "charity," which 
always includes the elements of interested ser- 
vice, true helpfulness, kindliness, and love, be 
debased by making it a synonym of mere giv- 
ing, which may mean the flinging of a quarter 
in scorn or for show. 

Recognizing the great truth that the best and 
only way to help another is to help him to 
help himself, and that the neglected classes 
need not so much alms as friends, the Organ- 
ized Charities with their several branches in 
different parts of the city have their staffs of 
"friendly visitors," almost all voluntary, and 
from some of the best homes in the land. 
Then when a case of need comes to the notice 
of the society, one of these goes to the person 
or family as a friend to investigate, to find 
what circumstances have brought about these 
conditions, and, if found worthy of aid, 
present needs are supplied, an effort is made 
to secure work, and every effort is made to 



120 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

put them on their feet again, that self-respect 
may be regained, that hope may enter in; for 
there is scarcely anything that tends to make 
one lose his self-respect so quickly and so 
completely as to be compelled, or of his own 
accord, to ask for alms. 

It is thus many times that a new life is 
entered upon, brightness and hope taking the 
place of darkness and despair. This is not 
the only call the friendly visitor makes; 
but he or she becomes a true friend, and 
makes regular visits as such. If by this 
method the one seeking charity is found to be 
an impostor, as is frequently the case, proper 
means of exposure are resorted to, that his or 
her progress in this course may be stopped. 
The organizations are thus doing a most valu- 
able work, and one that will become more and 
more valuable as they are enabled to become 
better organized, the greatest need to-day 
being more with the true spirit to act as visit- 
ing friends. 

It is this same great principle that has given 
birth to our college and university settle- 
ments and our neighborhood guilds which are 
so rapidly increasing, and which are destined 
to do a great and efficient work. Here a 
small colony of young women, many from our 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 121 

best homes, and the ablest graduates of our 
best colleges, and young men, many of them 
the ablest graduates of our best universities, 
take up their abode in the poorest parts of our 
large cities, to try by their personal influence 
and personal contact to raise the surrounding 
life to a higher plane. It is in these ways 
that the poor and the unfortunate are dealt 
with directly. Thus the classes mingle. 
Thus that sentimentalism which may do and 
which has done harm to these great problems, 
and by which the people it is designed to 
help may be hindered rather than helped, 
is done away with. Thus true aid and ser- 
vice are rendered, and the needy are really 
helped. 

The one whose life is built upon this prin- 
ciple will not take up work of this kind as 
a "fad," or because it is "fashionable," but 
because it is right, true, Christ-like. The 
truly great and noble never fear thus to mingle 
with those poorer and less fortunate. It is 
only those who would like to be counted as 
great, but who are too small to be so recog- 
nized, and who, therefore, always thinking of 
self, put forth every effort to appear so. 
There is no surer test than this. 



122 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKIXG 

Very truly has it been said that "the great- 
est thing a man can do for God is to be kind 
to some of His other children." All children 
of the same Father, therefore all brothers, 
sisters. Man is next to God. Man is God 
incarnate. Humanity, therefore, cannot be 
very far from being next to godliness. Many 
people there are who are greatly concerned 
about serving God, as they term it. Their 
idea is to build great edifices with costly or- 
naments to Him. A great deal of their time 
is spent in singing songs and hallelujahs to 
Him, just as if He needed or wanted these for 
Himself, forgetting that He is far above 
being benefited by anything that we can say 
or do, forgetting that He doesn't want these, 
when for lack of them some of His children 
are starving for bread to eat or are dying for 
the bread of life. 

Can you conceive of a God who is worthy of 
love and service, — and I speak most rever- 
ently, — who under such conditions would take 
a satisfaction in these things? I confess I 
am not able to. I can conceive of no way in 
which I can serve God only as I serve Him 
through my own life and through the lives of 
my fellow-men. This, certainly, is the only 
kind of service He needs or wants, or that 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 23 



is acceptable to Him. At one place we read, 
" He that says he loves God and loves not his 
fellow-men, is a liar; and the truth is not in 
him." 

Even in religion I think we shall find that 
there is nothing greater or more important 
than this great principle of service, helpful- 
ness, kindliness, and love. Is not Christian- 
ity, you ask, greater or more important? 
Why, bless you, is this any other than Chris- 
tianity, is Christianity any other than this, — 
at least, if we take what the Master Teacher 
himself has said? For what, let us ask, is a 
Christian, — the real, not merely in name? A 
follower of Christ, one who does as he did, 
one who lives as he lived. And, again, who 
was Christ? He that healed the sick, clothed 
the naked, bound up the broken-hearted, sus- 
tained and encouraged the weak, the faltering, 
befriended and aided the poor, the needy, con- 
demned the proud and the selfish, taught the 
people to live nobly, truly, grandly, to live in 
their higher, diviner selves, that the greatest 
among them should be their servant, and that 
his followers were those who lived as he 
lived. He spent all his time in the service 
of humanity. He gave his whole life in this 
way. He it was who went about doing good. 



124 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

Is it your desire then, to be numbered 
among his followers, to bear that blessed 
name, the name " Christian " ? Then sit at 
his feet, and learn of him, love him, do as 
he did, as he taught you to do, live as he 
lived, as he taught you to live, and you are 
a Christian, and not unless you do. True 
Christianity can be found in no other way. 

Naught is the difference what one may call 
himself; for many call themselves by this 
name to whom Christ says it will one day be 
said, " I never knew you : depart from me, ye 
cursed. " Naught is the difference what creeds 
one -may subscribe to, what rites and cere- 
monies he may observe, how loud and how 
numerous his professions may be. All of 
these are but as a vain mockery, unless he is 
a Christian; and to be a Christian is, as we 
have found, to be a follower of Christ, to do 
as he did, to live as he lived. Then live the 
Christ life. Live so as to become at one 
with God, and dwell continually in this 
blessed at-one-ment. The trouble all along 
has been that so many have mistaken the mere 
person of the Christ, the mere physical Jesus, 
for his life, his spirit, his teachings, and have 
succeeded in getting no farther than this as 
yet, except in cases here and there. 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 125 

Now and then a rare soul rises up, one with 
great power, great inspiration, and we wonder 
at his great power, his great inspiration, why 
it is. When we look deeply enough, however, 
we will find that one great fact will answer 
the question every time. It is living the life 
that brings the power. He is living the 
Christ life, not merely standing afar off and 
looking at it, admiring it, and saying, Yes, I 
believe, I believe, and ending it there. In 
other words, he has found the kingdom of 
heaven. He has found that it is not a place, 
but a condition; and the song continually 
arising from his heart is, There is joy, only 
joy. 

The Master, you remember, said: "Seek ye 
not for the kingdom of heaven in tabernacles 
or in houses made with hands. Know ye 
not that the kingdom of heaven is within 
you?" He told in plain words where and how 
to find it. He then told how to find all other 
things, when he said, "Seek ye first the king- 
dom of heaven, and all these other things 
shall be added unto you." Now, do you 
wonder at his power, his inspiration, his 
abundance of all things? The trouble with so 
many is that they act as if they do not believe 
what the Master said. They do not take him 



126 WHAT ALL THE WORLD $ S A-SEEKING 

at his word. They say one thing: they do 
another. Their acts give the lie to their 
words. Instead of taking him at his word, 
and living as if they had faith in him, they 
prefer to follow a series of old, outgrown, 
man-made theories, traditions, forms, cere- 
monies, and seem to be satisfied with the re- 
sults. No, to be a Christian is to live the 
Christ life, the life of him who went about 
doing good, the life of him who came not to 
be ministered unto, but to minister. 

We will find that this mighty principle of 
love and service is the greatest to live by in 
this life, and also one of the gates whereby 
all who would must enter the kingdom of 
heaven. 

Again we have the Master's words. In his 
own and only description of the last judgment, 
after speaking of the Son of Man coming in 
all his glory and all the holy angels with him, 
of his sitting on the throne of his glory with 
all nations gathered before him, of the separa- 
tion of this gathered multitude into two parts, 
the one on his right, the other on his left, he 
says: "Then shall the King say unto them on 
his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from 
the foundation of the world. For I was an 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 127 

hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, 
and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and 
ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I 
was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, 
and ye came unto me. Then shall the right- 
eous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw 
we thee an hungered, and fed thee ? or thirsty, 
and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a 
stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and 
clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or 
in prison, and came unto thee? And the King 
shall answer, and say unto them, Verily I say 
unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it 
unto me. 

"Then shall he say unto them on the left 
hand, Depart from me, ye cursed. For I 
was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; 
I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was 
a stranger, and ye took me not in; sick, and 
in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall 
they answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we 
thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, 
or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not 
minister unto thee? Then shall he answer 
them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inas- 
much as ye did it not to one of the least of these, 
ye did it not to me. ' ' 



128 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

After spending the greater portion of his 
life in many distant climes in a fruitless en- 
deavor to find the Cup of the Holy Grail,* 
thinking that thereby he was doing the great- 
est service he could for God, Sir Launfal at 
last returns an old man, gray-haired and bent. 
He finds that his castle is occupied by others, 
and that he himself is an outcast. His cloak 
is torn ; and instead of the charger in gilded 
trappings he was mounted upon when as a 
young man, he started out with great hopes 
and ambitions, he is afoot and leaning on a 
staff. While sitting there and meditating, he 
is met by the same poor and needy leper he 
passed the morning he started, the one who 
in his need asked for aid, and to whom he 
had flung a coin in scorn, as he hurried on 
in his eager desire to be in the Master's 
service. But matters are changed now, and 
he is a wiser man. Again the poor leper 
says : — 

" « For Christ's sweet sake, I beg an alms ' ; — 
The happy camels may reach the spring, 
But Sir Launfal sees only the grewsome thing, 

*" According to the mythology of the Romancers, the Sangreal, or 
Holy Grail, was the cup out of which Jesus partook of the Last Supper with 
his disciples. It was brought into England by Joseph of Arimathea, and 
remained there, an object of pilgrimage and adoration, for many years in the 
keeping of his lineal descendants. It was incumbent upon those who had 
charge of it to be chaste in thought, word, and deed; but, one of the 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 20, 



The leper, lank as the rain-blanched bone, 
That cowers beside him, a thing as lone 
And white as the ice-isles of Northern seas 
In the desolate horror of his disease. 

" And Sir Launfal said : ' I behold in thee 
An image of Him who died on the tree ; 
Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns, — 
Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns,— 
And to thy life were not denied 
The wounds in the hands and feet and side : 
Mild Mary's Son, acknowledge me ; 
Behold, through him, I give to thee ! ' 

" Then the soul of the leper stood up in his eyes 

And looked at Sir Launfal, and straightway he 
Remembered in what a haughtier guise 

He had flung an alms to leprosie, 
When he girt his young life up in gilded mail 
And set forth in search of the Holy Grail. 
The heart within him was ashes and dust ; 
He parted in twain his single crust, 
He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink, 
And gave the leper to eat and drink, 
'Twas a mouldy crust of coarse brown bread, 

'Twas water out of a wooden bowl, — 
Yet with fine wheaten bread was the leper fed, 

And 'twas red wine he drank with his thirsty soui. 

As Sir Launfal mused with a downcast face, 
A light shone round about the place ; 



keepers having broken this condition, the Holy Grail disappeared. From 
that time it was a favorite enterprise of the Knights of Sir Arthur's court to 
go in search of it."— James Resell Lowell. 



130 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

The leper no longer crouched at his side, 
But stood before him glorified, 
Shining and tall and fair and straight 
As the pillar that stood by the Beautiful Gate,— 
Himself the Gate whereby men can 
Enter the temple of God in Man. 

" And the voice that was calmer than silence said, 
' Lo, it is I, be not afraid ! 
In many climes, without avail, 
Thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail ; 
Behold, it is here, — this cup which thou 
Didst fill at the streamlet for me but now ; 
This crust is my body broken for thee, 
This water His blood that died on the tree ; 
The Holy Supper is kept, indeed, 
In whatso we share with another's need ; 
Not what we give, but what we share, — 
For the gift without the giver is bare ; 
Who gives himself with his alms feeds three, — 
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.' " 

The fear is sometimes entertained, and the 
question is sometimes asked, May not adher- 
ence to this principle of helpfulness and ser- 
vice become mere sentimentalism ? or still 
more, may it not be the means of lessening 
another's sense of self-dependence, and thus 
may it not at times do more harm than good? 
In reply let it be said : If the love which im- 
pels it be a selfish love, or a weak sentimen- 
talism, or an effort at show, or devoid of good 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 3 1 



common sense, yes, many times. But if it 
be a strong, genuine, unselfish love, then no, 
never. For, if my love for my fellow-man 
be the true love, I can never do anything that 
will be to his or any one's else detriment, — 
nothing that will not redound to his highest 
ultimate welfare. Should he, for example 
come and ask of me a particular favor, and 
were it clear to me that granting it would not 
be for his highest good ultimately, then love 
at once resolves itself into duty, and compels 
me to forbear. A true, genuine, unselfish 
love for one's fellow-man will never prompt, 
and much less permit, anything that will not 
result in his highest ultimate good. Ad- 
herence, therefore, to this great principle in 
its truest sense, instead of being a weak senti- 
mentalism, is, we shall find, of all practical 
things the most intensely practical. 

And a word here in regard to the test of 
true love and service, in distinction from its 
semblance for show or for vain glory. The 
test of the true is this: that it goes about and 
does its good work, it never says anything 
about it, but lets others do the saying. It not 
only says nothing about it, but more, it has 
no desire to have it known ; and, the truer it is, 
the greater the desire to have it unknown save 



132 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

to God and its own true self. In other words, 
it is not sicklied o'er with a semi-insane 
desire for notoriety or vainglory, and hence 
never weakens itself nor harasses any one else 
by lengthy recitals of its good deeds. It is 
not the professional good-doing. It is simply 
living its natural life, open-minded, open- 
hearted, doing each day what its hands find to 
do, and in this finding its own true life and 
joy. And in this way it unintentionally but 
irresistibly draws to itself a praise the rarest 
and divinest I know of, — the praise I heard 
given but a day or two ago to one who is 
living simply his own natural life without any 
conscious effort at anything else, the praise 
contained in the words: And, oh, it is beauti- 
ful, the great amount of good he does and of 
which the world never hears. 



PART V. 
THE INCOMING 



THE INCOMING. 



O dull, gray grub, unsightly and noisome, unable to 
roam, 

Days pass, God's at work, the slow chemistry's going 
on, 

Behold ! Behold ! 
O brilliant, buoyant life, full winged, all the heaven's 
thy home ! 

O poor, mean man, stumbling and falling, e'en shamed 
by a clo'l 

Years pass, God's at work, spiritual awakening has 
come, 

Behold ! Behold ! 
O regal, royal soul, then image, now the likeness of 
God. 

The Master Teacher, he who appeals most 
strongly and comes nearest to us of this west- 
ern civilization, has told us that the whole and 
the highest duty of man is comprised in two 
great, two simple precepts — love to God and 
love to the fellow-man. The latter we have 
already fully considered. We have found that 
in its real and true meaning it is not a mere 
indefinite or sentimental abstraction, but that 
it is a vital, living force; and in its manifesta- 



I36 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



tion it is life, it is action, it is service. Let 
us now for a moment to the other, — love to 
God, which in great measure however let it 
be said, has been considered in dealing with 
love to the fellow-man. Let us see, however, 
what it in its true and full nature reveals. 

The question naturally arising at the outset 
is, Who, what is God? I think no truer, sub- 
limer definition has ever been given in the 
world's history, in any language, in any 
clime, than that given by the Master himself 
when standing by the side of Jacob's well, to 
the Samaritan woman he said, God is Spirit; 
and they that worship Him must worship Him 
in spirit and in truth. God is Spirit, the In- 
finite Spirit, the Infinite Life back of all 
these physical manifestations we see in this 
changing world about us, and of which all, 
including we ourselves, is the body or outer 
form; the one Infinite Spirit which fills all 
the universe with Himself, so that all is He, 
since He is all. All is He in the sense of 
being a part of Him ; for, if He is all, there 
can be nothing that is outside of, that is not 
a part of Him, so that each one is a part of 
this Eternal God who is not separate from 
us, and, if not separate from us, then not afar 
off, for in Him we live and move and have our 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 37 



being, He is the life of oitr life, our very life 
itself. The life of God is in us, we are in 
the life of God; but that life transcends us so 
that it includes all else, — every person, every 
animal, every grass-blade, every flower, every 
particle of earth, every particle of everything, 
animate and inanimate. So that God is All ; 
and, if all, then each individual, you and I, 
must be a vital part of that all, since there 
can be nothing separate from it; and, if a 
part, then the same in nature, in character- 
istics, — the same as a tumbler of water taken 
from the ocean is, in nature, in qualities, in 
characteristics, identical with that ocean, its 
source. God, then, is the Infinite Spirit of 
which each one is a part in the form of an 
individualized spirit. God is Spirit, creating, 
manifesting, ruling through the agency of 
great spiritual laws and forces that surround 
us on every side, that run through all the uni- 
verse, and that unite all; for in one sense, 
there is nothing in all this great universe but 
law. And, oh, the stupendous grandeur of it 
all ! These same great spiritual laws and 
forces operate within us. They are the laws 
of our being. By them every act of each indi- 
vidual life is governed. 

Now one of the great facts borne ever more 



I38 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

and more into the inner consciousness of man 
is that sublime and transcendent fact that we 
have just noticed, — that man is one with, that 
he is part of, the Infinite God, this Infinite 
Spirit that is the life of all, this Infinite 
Whole; that he is not a mere physical, ma- 
terial being, — for the physical is but the ma- 
terial which the real inner self, the real life or 
spirit uses to manifest through, — but that 
he is this spirit, this spirit, using, living in 
this physical, material house or body to get 
the contact, the experience with the material 
world around him while in this form of life, 
but spirit nevertheless, and spirit now as 
much as he ever will or ever can be, except so 
far of course, as he recognizes more and more 
his true, his higher self, and so consciously 
evolves, step by step, into the higher and ever 
higher realization of the real nature, the real 
self, the God-self. As I heard it said by 
one of the world's great thinkers and writers 
but a few days ago : Men talk of having a soul. 
I have no soul. I am a soul : I have a body. 
We are told moreover in the word, that man 
is created in the image of God. God is 
Spirit. What then must man be, if that 
which tells us is true? 

Now one of the great errors all along in the 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 39 



past has been that we have mistaken the mere 
body, the mere house in which we live while 
in this form of life for a period, — that which 
comes from the earth and which, in a greater 
or less time, returns to the earth, — this we 
have mistaken for the real self. Either we 
have lost sight of or we have failed to recog- 
nize the true identity. The result is that we 
are at life from the wrong side, from the side 
of the external, while all true life is from 
within out. 

We have taken our lives out of a conscious 
harmony with the higher laws of our being, 
with the result that we are going against the 
great current of the Divine Order of things. 
Is it any wonder, then, that we find the 
strugglings, the inharmonies, the sufferings, 
the fears, the forebodings, the fallings by the 
wayside, the "strange, inscrutable dispensa- 
tions of Providence" that we behold on every 
side? The moment we bring our lives into 
harmony with the higher laws of our being, 
and, as a result, into harmony with the cur- 
rent of the Divine Order of things, we shall 
find that all these will have taken wings; for 
the cause will have been removed. And as 
we look down the long vista of such a life, we 
shall find that each thing fits into all others 



I4O WHAT ALL THE WORLD 's A-SEEKING 

with a wonderful, a sublime, a perfect, a 
divine harmony. 

This, it will seem to some, — and to many, 
no doubt, — is claiming a great deal. No 
more, however, than the Master Teacher 
warranted us in claiming when he said, and 
repeated it so often, Seek ye first the kingdom 
of heaven, and all these other things shall be 
added unto you ; and he left us not in the dark 
as to exactly what he meant by the kingdom 
of heaven, for again he said : Say not, Lo 
here, nor lo there. Know ye not that the 
kingdom of heaven is within you? Within 
yozi. The interior spiritual kingdom, the 
kingdom of the higher self, which is the king- 
dom of God; the kingdom of harmony, — har- 
mony with the higher laws of your being. 

The Master said what he said not for the 
sake merely of using a phrase of rhetoric, nor 
even to hear himself talk; for this he never 
did. But that great incarnation of spiritual 
insight and power knew of the great spiritual 
laws and forces under which we live, and also 
that supreme fact of the universe, that man is 
a spiritual being, born to have dominion, and 
that, by recognizing the true self and by bring- 
ing it into complete and perfect harmony with 
the higher spiritual laws and forces under 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD ' S A-SEEKING 1 4 1 



which he lives, he can touch these laws and 
forces so that they will respond at every call 
and bring him whatsoever he wills, — one of 
the most stupendous scientific facts of the uni- 
verse. When he has found and entered into 
the kingdom, then applies to him the truth of 
the great precept, Take ye no thought for the 
morrow ; for the things of the morrow will take 
care of themselves. 

Yes, we are at life from the wrong side. 
We have been giving all time and attention to 
the mere physical, the material, the external, 
the mere outward means of expression and the 
things that pertain thereto, thus missing the 
real life; and this we have called living, and 
seem, indeed, to be satisfied with the results. 
No wonder the cry has gone out again and 
again from many a human soul, Is life worth 
the living ? But from one who has once com- 
menced to live, this cry never has, nor can it 
ever come; for, when the kingdom is once 
found, life then ceases to be a plodding, and be- 
comes an exultation, an ecstasy, a joy. Yes, 
you will find that all the evil, all the error, 
all the disease, all the suffering, all the fears, 
all the forebodings of life, are on the side 
of the physical, the material, the transient; 
while all the peace, all the joy, all the happi- 



142 WHAT ALL THE WORLD ? S A-SEEKING 

ness, all the growth, all the life, all the rich, 
exulting, abounding life, is on the side of the 
spiritual, the ever-increasing, the eternal,— 
that that never changes, that has no end. In- 
stead of crying out against the destiny of fate, 
let us cry out against the destiny of self, or 
rather against the destiny of the mistaken self; 
for everything that comes to us comes through 
causes which we ourselves or those before us 
have set into operation. Nothing comes by 
chance, for in all the wide imiverse there is 
absolutely no such thing as chance. We bring 
whatever comes. Are we not satisfied with 
the effects, the results? The thing then to 
do, is to change the causes; for we have every- 
thing in our own hands the moment we awake 
to a recognition of the true self. 

We make our own heaven or our own hell, 
and the only heaven or hell that will ever be 
ours is that of our own making. The order of 
the universe is one thing: we take our lives 
out of harmony with and so pervert the laws 
under which we live, and make it another. 
The order is the all good. We pervert the 

laws, and what we call evil is the result, 

simply the result of the violation of law; and 
we then wonder that a just and loving God 
could permit such and such things. We 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD' S A-SEEKING I43 

wonder at what we term the "strange, inscru- 
table dispensations of Providence," when all 
is of our own making. We can be our own 
best friends or we can be our own worst ene- 
mies ; and the only real enemy one can ever 
have is the self, the very self. 

It is a well-known fact in the scientific 
world that the great work in the process of 
evolution is the gradual advancing from the 
lower to the higher, from the coarser to the 
finer, or, in other words, from the coarser 
material to the finer spiritual; and this higher 
spiritualization of life is the great work before 
us all. All pass ultimately over the same 
road in general, some more rapidly, some more 
slowly. The ultimate destiny of all is the 
higher life, the finding of the higher self; and 
to this we are either led or we are pushed, — 
led, by recognizing and coming into harmony 
with the higher laws of our being, or pushed, 
through their violation, and hence through 
experience, through suffering, and at times 
through bitter suffering, until through this 
very agency we learn the laws and come into 
harmony with them, so that we thus see the 
economy, the blessedness of even error, shame, 
and suffering itself, in that, if we are not 
wise enough to go voluntarily and of our own 



144 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

accord, it all the more quickly brings us to 
our true, our higher selves. 

Moreover, whatever is evolved must as 
surely first be involved. We cannot conceive 
even of an evolution without first an involu- 
tion; and, if this is true, we cannot conclude 
otherwise than that all that will ever be 
brought forth through the process of evolution 
is already within, all the God possibilities of 
the human soul are now, at this very moment, 
latent within. This being true, the process 
of evolution need not, as is many times sup- 
posed, take aeons or even ages for its accom- 
plishment; for the process is wonderfully ac- 
celerated when we have grasped and when we 
have commenced to actualize the reality of 
that mighty precept, Know thyself. 

It is possible, through an intelligent under- 
standing of the laws of the higher life, to ad- 
vance in the spiritual awakening and unfold- 
ment even in a single year more than one 
otherwise would through a whole lifetime, or 
more in a single day or even hour than in an 
entire year or series of years otherwise. 

This higher spiritualization of life is cer- 
tainly what the Master had in mind when he 
said, It is as hard for a rich man to enter into 
the kingdom of heaven as it is for a camel to 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 145 



pass through the eye of a needle. For, if a 
man give all his days and his nights merely 
to the accumulation of outer material posses- 
sions, what time has he for the growing, the 
unfolding, of the interior, the spiritual, what 
time for finding that wonderful kingdom, the 
kingdom of heaven, the Christ within? 

This certainly is also the significance of the 
temptation in the wilderness. The tempta- 
tions were all, you will recall, in connection 
with the material, the physical, and the things 
that pertain thereto. Do so and so, said the 
physical : follow after me, and I will give you 
bread in abundance, I will give you great fame 
and notoriety, I will give you vast material 
possessions. All, you see, a calling away 
from the real, the interior, the spiritual, the 
eternal. Dominion over all the kingdoms of 
the world was promised. But what, what is do- 
minion overall the world, with heaven left out? 

All, however, was triumphed over. The 
physical was put into subjection by the spirit- 
ual, the victory was gained once for all and 
forever; and he became the supreme and royal 
Master, and by this complete and glorious 
mastery of self he gained the mastery over all 
else besides, even to material things and con- 
ditions. 



I46 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

And by this higher spiritual chemicaliza- 
tion of life thus set into operation the very 
thought forces of his mind became charged 
with a living, mighty, and omnipotent power, 
so as to effect a mastery over all exterior con- 
ditions : hence the numerous things called 
miracles by those who witnessed and who had 
not entered into a knowledge of the higher 
laws that can triumph over and master the 
lower, but which are just as real and as 
natural on their plane as the lower, and even 
more real and more natural, because higher 
and therefore more enduring. But this com- 
plete mastery over self during this period of 
temptation was just the beginning of the path 
that led from glory unto glory, the path that 
for you and for me will lead from glory unto 
glory the same as for him. 

It was this new divine and spiritual chemis- 
try of life thus set into operation that trans- 
formed the man Jesus, that royal-hearted elder 
brother, into the Christ Jesus, and forever 
blessed be his name; for he thus became our 
Saviour, — he became our Saviour by virtue of 
pointing out to us the way. This overcoming 
by the calling of the higher spiritual forces 
into operation is certainly what he meant 
when he said, I have overcome the world, and 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 47 

what he would have us understand when he 
says, Overcome the world, even as I have over- 
come it. 

And in the same sense we are all the saviors 
one of another, or may become so. A sudden 
emergency arises, and I stand faltering and 
weak with fear. My friend beside me is strong 
and fearless. He sees the emergency. He 
summons up all the latent powers within him, 
and springs forth to meet it. This sublime ex- 
ample arouses me, calls my latent powers into 
activity, when but for him I might not have 
known them there. I follow his example. I 
now know my powers, and know them forever 
after. Thus, in this, my friend has become 
my savior. 

I am weak in some point of character, — 
vacillating, yielding, stumbling, falling, con- 
tinually eating the bitter fruit of it all. My 
friend is strong, he has gained thorough self- 
mastery. The majesty and beauty of power are 
upon his brow. I see his example, I love his 
life, I am influenced by his power. My soul 
longs and cries out for the same. A supreme 
effort of will — -that imperial master that will 
take one anywhere when rightly directed — 
arises within me, it is born at last, and it 
calls all the soul's latent powers into activity; 



I48 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



and instead of stumbling I stand firm, instead 
of giving over in weakness I stand firm and 
master, I enter into the joys of full self-mas- 
tery, and through this into the mastery of all 
things besides. And thus my friend has again 
become my savior. 

With the new power I have acquired through 
the example and influence of my savior-friend, 
I, in turn, stand before a friend who is strug- 
gling, who is stumbling and in despair. He 
sees, he feels, the power of my strength. He 
longs for, his soul cries out for the same. 
His interior forces are called into activity, he 
now knows his powers; and instead of the 
slave, he becomes the master, and thus I, in 
turn, have become his savior. Oh, the wonder- 
ful sense of sublimity, the mighty feelings of 
responsibility, the deep sense of power and 
peace the recognition of this fact should bring 
to each and all. 

God works through the instrumentality of 
human agency. Then forever away with that 
old, shrivelling, weakening, dying, and devil- 
ish idea that we are poor worms of the dust! 
We may or we may not be : it all depends upon 
the self. The moment we believe we are we, 
become such ; and as long as we hold to the 
belief we will be held to this identity, and will 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 49 



act and live as such. The moment, however, 
we recognize our divinity, our higher, our 
God-selves, and the fact that we are the saviors 
of our fellow-men, we become saviors, and 
stand and move in the midst of a majesty and 
beauty and power that of itself proclaims us 
as such. 

There is a prevalent idea to the effect that 
overcoming in this sense necessarily implies 
more or less of a giving up, — that it means 
something possibly on the order of asceticism. 
On the contrary, the highest, truest, keenest 
pleasures the human soul can know, it finds 
only after the higher is entered upon and has 
commenced its work of mastery; and, instead 
of there being a giving up of any kind, there 
is a great law which says that the lower al- 
ways and of its own accord falls away before 
the higher. And the time soon comes when, 
as one stands and looks back, he wonders that 
this or that that he at one time called pleasure 
ever satisfied him ; for what then satisfied him, 
compared to what now is his hourly peace, 
satisfaction, and joy, was but as poor brass com- 
pared to the finest, purest, and rarest of gold. 

From what has been said let it not be in- 
ferred that the body, the physical, material 



I50 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

life is to be despised or looked down upon. 
This, rather let it be said, is one of the crying 
errors of the times, and prolific of a vast 
amount of error, suffering, and shame. On 
the contrary, it should be thought all the more 
highly of: it should be loved and developed to 
its highest perfections, beauties, and powers. 
God gave us the body not in vain. It is just 
as holy and beautiful as the spirit itself. It is 
merely the outward material manifestation of 
the individualized spirit; and we by our hourly 
thoughts and emotions are building it, are 
determining its conditions, its structure, and 
appearance. And, if there are any conditions 
we are not satisfied with, we by an understand- 
ing of the laws, have it in our power to make 
it over and change these conditions. Fla- 
marion, the eminent French scientist, member 
of the Royal Academy of Science, and recog- 
nized as one of the most eminent scientists 
living, tells us that the entire human struct- 
ure can be made over within a period of less 
than one year, some eleven months being the 
length of time required for the more compact 
and more set portions to respond ; while some 
portions respond much more readily, within 
a period of from two to three months, and 
some even within a month. 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD* S A-SEEKING I 5 I 



Every part, every organ, every function oi 
the body is just as clean, just as beautiful, 
just as sweet, and just as holy as every other 
part; and it is only by virtue of man's per- 
verted ways of looking at some that they 
become otherwise, and the moment they so 
become, abuses, ill uses, suffering, and shame 
creep in. 

Not repression, but elevation. Would that 
this could be repeated a thousand times over ! 
Not repression, but elevation. Every part, 
every organ, every function of the body is 
given for use, but not for misuse or abuse; and 
the moment the latter takes place in connec- 
tion with any function it loses its higher 
powers of use, and there goes with this the 
higher powers of true enjoyment. It is thus 
that we get that large class known as abnor- 
mal, resorting to the methods they resort to 
for enjoyment, but which, in its true sense, 
they always fail in finding, because law will 
admit of no violations; and, if violated, it 
takes away the very powers of enjoyment, it 
takes away the very things that through its 
violation they thought they had secured, or 
it turns them into ashes in their very hands. 
God, nature, law, the higher self, is not 
mocked. 



152 WHAT ALL THE WORLD S A-SEEKING 

Not repression, but elevation, — repression 
only in the sense of mastery ; but this means — ■ 
nay, this is — elevation. In other words, we 
should be the master, and not the body. We 
should dictate to the body, and should never, 
even for an instant, allow it to dictate to us. 

Oh, the thousands, the hundreds of thousands 
of men and women who are everywhere being 
driven hither and thither, led into this and 
into that which their own better selves would 
not enter into, simply because they have 
allowed the body to assume the mastery; 
while they have taken the place of the weak- 
ling, the slave, and all on account of their 
own weakness, — weakness through ignorance, 
ignorance of the tremendous forces and powers 
within, the forces and powers of the mind and 
spirit. 

It would be a right royal plan for those who 
are thus enslaved by the body, — and we all 
are more or less, each in his own particular 
way, and not one is absolutely free, — it would 
be a good plan to hold immediately, at this 
very hour, a conversation with the body some- 
what after this fashion : Body, we have for 
some time been dwelling together. Life for 
neither has been in the highest degree satis- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 5 3 

factory. . The cause is now apparent to me. 
The mastery I have voluntarily handed over 
to you. You have not assumed it of your own. 
accord ; but I have given it over to you little 
by little, and just in the degree that you have 
appropriated it. Neither one is to blame. 
It has been by virtue of ignorance. But 
henceforth we will reverse positions. You 
shall become the servant, and I the master. 
From this time forth you shall no longer dic- 
tate to me, but I will dictate to you. 

I, one with Infinite intelligence, wisdom, 
and power, longing for a fuller and ever fuller 
realization of this oneness, will assume control, 
and will call upon you to help in the fuller 
and ever fuller external manifestation of this 
realization. We will thus regain the ground 
both of us have lost. We will thus be truly 
married instead of farcically so. And thus 
we will help each the other to a realization of 
the highest, most satisfying and most endur- 
ing pleasures and joys, possibilities and 
powers, loves and realizations, that human life 
can know; and so, hand in hand, we will help 
each the other to the higher and ever-increas- 
ing life instead of degrading each the other to 
the lower and ever-decreasing. I will become 
the imperial master, and you the royal compan- 



154 WHAT ALL THE WOFLD's A-SEEKING 



ion; and thus we will go forth to an ever 
larger life of love and service, and so of true 
enjoyment. 

This conversation, if entered into in the 
spirit, accompanied by an earnest, sincere 
desire for its fulfilment, re-enforced by the 
thought forces, and continually attended by 
that absolute magnet of power, firm expecta- 
tion, will, if all are firmly and persistently 
held to, bring the full realization of one's 
fondest desires with a certainty as absolute 
as that effect follows cause. The higher self 
will invariably master when it truly and 
firmly asserts itself. Much the same attitude 
can be assumed in connection with the body 
in disease or in suffering with the same re- 
sults. Forces can be set into operation which 
will literally change and make over the dis- 
eased, the abnormal portions, and in time 
transform them into the healthy, the strong, 
the normal, — this when we once understand 
and vitally grasp the laws of these mighty 
forces, and are brought to the full recognition 
of the absolute control of mind, of spirit, 
over matter, and all, again let it be said, in 
accordance with natural spiritual law. 

No, a knowledge of tJie spiritual realities of 
life prohibits asceticism,, 7'epression s the same 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING I 55 



as it prohibits license and perverted use. To err 
on the one side is just as co7itrary to the ideal 
life as to err on the other. All things are for 
a purpose, all should be used and enjoyed; but 
all should be rightly used, that they may be 
fully enjoyed. 

It is the threefold life and development 
that is wanted, — physical, mental, spiritual. 
This gives the rounded life, and he or she who 
fails in any one comes short of the perfect 
whole. The physical has its uses just the 
-same and is just as important as the others. 
The great secret of the highly successful life 
is, however, to infuse the mental and the 
physical with the spiritual ; in other words, 
to spiritualize all, and so raise all to the high- 
est possibilities and powers. 

It is the all-round, fully developed we want, 
— not the ethereal, pale-blooded man and 
woman, but the man and woman of flesh and 
blood, for action and service here and now, — 
the man and woman strong and powerful, with 
all the faculties and functions fully unfolded 
and used, all in a royal and bounding condi- 
tion, but all rightly subordinated. The man 
and the woman of this kind, with the imperial 
hand of mastery upon all, — standing, moving 
thus like a king, nay, like a very God, — such 



156 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

is the man and such is the woman of power. 
Such is the ideal life : anything else is one- 
sided, and falls short of it. 

The most powerful agent in character-build- 
ing is this awakening to the true self, to the 
fact that man is a spiritual being, — nay, more, 
that I, this very eternal I, am a spiritual be- 
ing, right here and now, at this very moment, 
with the God-powers which can be quickly 
called forth. With this awakening, life in all 
its manifold relations becomes wonderfully 
simplified. And as to the powers, the full 
realization of the fact that man is a spiritual 
being and a living as such brings, they are 
absolutely without limit, increasing in direct 
proportion as the higher self, the God-self, 
assumes the mastery, and so as this higher 
spiritualization of life goes on. 

With this awakening and realization one is 
brought at once en rapport with the universe. 
He feels the power and the thrill of the life 
universal. He goes out from his own little 
garden spot, and mingles with the great uni- 
verse; and the little perplexities, trials, and 
difficulties of life that to-day so vex and annoy 
him, fall away of their own accord by reason 
of their very insignificance. The intuitions 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 57 

become keener and ever more keen and unerr- 
ing in their guidance. There comes more and 
more the power of reading men, so that no 
harm can come from this source. There 
comes more and more the power of seeing into 
the future, so that more and more true be- 
comes the old adage, — that coming events cast 
their shadows before. Health in time takes 
the place of disease; for all disease and its 
consequent suffering is merely the result of 
the violation of law, either consciously or un- 
consciously, either intentionally or uninten- 
tionally. There comes also a spiritual power 
which, as it is sent out, is adequate for the 
healing of others the same as in the days of 
old. The body becomes less gross and heavy, 
finer in its texture and form, so that it serves 
far better and responds far more readily to the 
higher impulses of the soul. Matter itself in 
time responds to the action of these higher 
forces; and many things that we are accus- 
tomed by reason of our limited vision to call 
miraculous or supernatural become the nor- 
mal, the natural, the every-day. 

For what, let us ask, is a miracle? Noth- 
ing more nor less than this: a highly illum- 
ined soul, one who has brought his life into 
thorough harmony with the higher spiritual 



L$8 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

laws and forces of his being, and therefore 
with those of the universe, thus making it 
possible for the highest things to come to him, 
has brought to him a law a little higher than 
the ordinary mind knows of as yet. This 
he touches, he operates. It responds. The 
people see the result, and cry out, Miracle! 
miracle! when it is just as natural, just as 
fully in accordance with the law on this higher 
plane, as is the common, the every-day on the 
ordinai-y. And let it be remembered that 
the miraculous, the supernatural of to-day 
becomes, as in the process of evolution we 
leave the lower for the higher, the common- 
place, the natural, the every-day of to-morrow; 
and, truly, miracles are being performed in the 
world to-day just as much as they ever have 
been. 

And why should we not to-day have the 
powers of the foremost in the days of old? 
The great universe in which we live is just 
the same, the great laws under which we live 
are identically the same, God the same and 
working in His world now just as then. The 
only difference we shall find is in ourselves, 
in that we have taken our lives out of harmony 
with the higher laws of our being, and conse- 
quently have lost the higher powers through 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING I 59 



not using them. Mighty men we are told 
they were, mighty men who walked with 
God, — and in the last clause lies the secret of 
the first, — men who lived in the spirit, men 
who followed after the real life instead of giv- 
ing all time and attention to the mere external, 
men who lived in the higher stories of their 
being, and not continually in the basements. 

With here and there an exception we reverse 
the process. We live in the valleys, so to 
speak, often disease-infected valleys, when we 
might mount up to the mountain-tops, a*nd 
there dwell continually in the warm and mel- 
low sunlight of God's, or if you please, of 
nature's great, unchangeable laws, and find 
ourselves rising ever higher and higher, and 
revelations coming new every day. 

The Master never claimed for himself any- 
thing that he did not claim for all mankind; 
but, quite to the contrary, he said and con- 
tinually repeated, Not only shall ye do these 
things, but greater than these shall ye do; for 
I have pointed out to you the way, — meaning, 
though strange as it evidently seems to many, 
exactly what he said. 

Of the vital power of thought and the 
interior forces in moulding conditions, and 
more, of the supremacy of thought over all 



l60 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKJNG 

conditions, the world has scarcely the faintest 
grasp, not to say even idea, as yet. The fact 
that thoughts are forces, and that through them 
we have creative power, is one of the most vital 
facts of the universe, the most vital fact of 
man's being. And through this instrumen- 
tality we have in our grasp and as our right- 
ful heritage, the power of making life and all 
its manifold conditions exactly what we will. 

Through our thought-forces we have creative 
power, not in a figurative sense, but in re- 
ality. Everything in the material universe 
about us had its origin first in spirit, in 
thought, and from this it took its form. The 
very world in which we live, with all its man- 
ifold wonders and sublime manifestations, is 
the result of the energies of the divine intel- 
ligence or mind, — God, or whatever term it 
comes convenient for each one to use. And 
God said, Let there be, and there was, — the 
material world, at least the material manifes- 
tation of it, literally spoken into existence, 
the spoken word, however, but the outward 
manifestation of the interior forces of the Su- 
preme Intelligence. 

Every castle the world has ever seen was 
first an ideal in the architect's mind. Every 
statue was first an ideal in the sculptor's 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING l6l 

mind. Every piece of mechanism the world 
has ever known was first formed in the mind 
of the inventor. Here it was given birth to. 
These same mind-forces then dictated to and 
sent the energy into the hand that drew the 
model, and then again dictated to and sent the 
energy into the hands whereby the first instru- 
ment was clothed in the material form of 
metal or of wood. The lower negative always 
gives way to the higher when made positive. 
Mind is positive : matter is negative. 

Each individual life is a part of, and hence 
is one with, the Infinite Life; and the highest 
intelligence and power belongs to each in just 
the degree that he recognizes his oneness and 
lays claim to and uses it. The power of the 
word is not merely an idle phrase or form of 
expression. It is a real mental, spiritual, 
scientific fact, and can become vital and 
powerful in your hands and in mine in just 
the degree that we understand the omnipotence 
of the thought forces and raise all to the 
higher planes. 

The blind, the lame, the diseased, stood 
before the Christ, who said, Receive thy sight, 
rise up and walk, or, be thou healed; and lo ! 
it was so. The spoken word, however, was but 
the outward expression and manifestation of 



1 62 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



his interior thought-forces, the power and po- 
tency of which he so thoroughly knew. But 
the laws governing them are the same to-day 
as they were then, and it lies in our power to 
use them the same as it lay in his. 

Each individual life, after it has reached 
a certain age or degree of intelligence, lives 
in the midst of the surroundings or environ- 
ments of its own creation; and this by reason 
of that wonderful power, the drawing power of 
mind, which is continually operating in every 
life, whether it is conscious of it or not. 

We are all living, so to speak, in a vast 
ocean of thought. The very atmosphere about 
us is charged with the thought - forces that 
are being continually sent out. When the 
thought-forces leave the brain, they go out 
upon the atmosphere, the subtle conducting 
ether, much the same as sound-waves go out. 
It is by virtue of this law that thought trans- 
ference is possible, and has become an estab- 
lished scientific fact, by virtue of which a per- 
son can so direct his thought-forces that a per- 
son at a distance, and in a receptive attitude, 
can get the thought much the same as sound, 
for example, is conducted through the agency 
of a connecting medium. 

Even though the thoughts as they leave 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 63 



a particular person, are not consciously di- 
rected, they go out; and all may be influ- 
enced by them in a greater or less degree, 
each one in proportion as he or she is more or 
less sensitively organized, or in proportion as 
he or she is negative, and so open to forces 
and influences from without. The law op- 
erating here is one with that great law of the 
universe, — that like attracts like, so that one 
continually attracts to himself forces and 
influences most akin to those of his own life. 
And his own life is determined by the 
thoughts and emotions he habitually enter- 
tains, for each is building his world from with- 
in. As within, so without ; cause, effect. 

A stalk of wheat and a stock of corn are 
growing side by side, within an inch of each 
other. The soil is the same for both; but the 
wheat converts the food it takes from the soil 
into wheat, the likeness of itself, while the 
corn converts the food it takes from the same 
soil into corn, the likeness of itself. What 
that which each has taken from the soil is con- 
verted into is determined by the soul, the in- 
terior life, the interior forces of each. This 
same grain taken as food by two persons will 
be converted into the body of a criminal in 
the one case, and into the body of a saint in 



164 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



the other, each after its kind ; and its kind is 
determined by the inner life of each. And 
what again determines the inner life of each? 
The thoughts and emotions that are habitually 
entertained and that inevitably, sooner or 
later, manifest themselves in outer material 
form. Thought is the great builder in human 
life : it is the determining factor. Continu- 
ally think thoughts that are good, and your 
life will show forth in goodness, and your 
body in health and beauty. Continually think 
evil thoughts, and your life will show forth in 
evil, and your body in weakness and repulsive- 
ness. Think thoughts of love, and you will 
love and will be loved. Think thoughts of 
hatred, and you will hate and will be hated. 
Each follows its kind. 

It is by virtue of this law that each per- 
son creates his own " atmosphere " ; and this 
atmosphere is determined by the character 
of the thoughts he habitually entertains. It 
is, in fact, simply his thought atmosphere 
— the atmosphere which other people detect 
and are influenced by. 

In this way each person creates the atmos- 
phere of his own room; a family, the atmos- 
phere of the house in which they live, so that 
the moment you enter the door you feel influ- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 65 



ences kindred to the thoughts and hence to the 
lives of those who dwell there. You get a 
feeling of peace and harmony or a feeling of 
disquietude and inharmony. You get a wel- 
come, want-to-stay feeling or a cold, want-to- 
get-away feeling, according to their thought 
attitude toward you, even though but few 
words be spoken. So the characteristic men- 
tal states of a congregation of people who as- 
semble there determine the atmosphere of any 
given assembly-place, church, or cathedral. 
Its inhabitants so make, so determine the at- 
mosphere of a particular village or city. The 
sympathetic thoughts sent out by a vast amphi- 
theatre of people, as they cheer a contestant, 
carry him to goals he never could reach by his 
own efforts alone. The same is true in regard 
to an orator and his audience. 

Napoleon's army is in the East. The 
plague is beginning to make inroads into its 
ranks. Long lines of men are lying on cots 
and on the ground in an open space adjoining 
the army. Fear has taken a vital hold of all, 
and the men are continually being stricken. 
Look yonder, contrary to the earnest en- 
treaties of his officers, who tell him that such 
exposure will mean sure death, Napoleon with 
a calm and dauntless look upon his face, with 



f66 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



a firm and defiant step, is coming through 
these plague-stricken ranks. He is going up 
to, talking with, touching the men ; and, as they 
see him, there goes up a mighty shout, — The 
Emperor! the Emperor! and from that hour 
the plague in its inroads is stopped. A mar- 
vellous example of the power of a man who, 
by his own dauntless courage, absolute fear- 
lessness, and power of mind, could send out 
such forces that they in turn awakened kin- 
dred forces in the minds of thousands of 
others, which in turn dominate their very 
bodies, so that the plague, and even death 
itself, is driven from the field. One of the 
grandest examples of a man of the most 
mighty and tremendous mind and will power, 
and at the same time an example of one of 
the grandest failures, taking life in its total- 
ity, the world has ever seen. 

Again, as has been said, the great law 
operating in connection with the thought- 
forces is one with that great law of the uni- 
verse,— that like attracts like. We can, by 
virtue of our ignorance of the powers of the 
mind forces and the prevailing mental states, 
— we can take the passive, the negative, fear- 
ing, drifting attitude, and thus continually 
attract to us like influences and conditions 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 6/ 



from both the seen and the unseen side of 
life. Or, by a knowledge of the power and 
potency of these forces, we can take the posi- 
tive, the active attitude, that of mastery, and 
so attract the higher and more valuable influ- 
ences, exactly as we will to. 

We are all much more influenced by the 
thought - forces and mental states of those 
around us and of the world at large than we 
have even the slightest conception of. If not 
self-hypnotized into certain beliefs and prac- 
tices, we are, so to speak, semi-hypnotized 
through the influence of the thoughts of 
others, even though unconsciously both on 
their part and on ours. We are so influenced 
and enslaved in just the degree that we fail 
to recognize the power and omnipotence of 
our own forces, and so become slaves to cus- 
tom, conventionality, the opinions of others, 
and so in like proportion lose our own individ- 
uality and powers. He who in his own 
mind takes the attitude of the slave, by the 
power of his own thoughts and the forces he 
thus attracts to him, becomes the slave. He 
who in his own mind takes the attitude of the 
master, by the same power of his own thoughts 
and the forces he thus attracts to him, be- 
comes the master. Each is building his 



1 68 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



world from within, and, if outside forces play, 
it is because he allows them to play; and he 
has it in his own power to determine whether 
these shall be positive, uplifting, ennobling, 
strengthening, success-giving, or negative, de- 
grading, weakening, failure-bringing. 

Nothing is more subtle than thought, noth- 
ing more powerful, nothing more irresistible 
in its operations, when rightly applied and held 
to with a faith and fidelity that is unswerving, 
— a faith and fidelity that never knows the 
neutralizing effects of doubt and fear. If one 
have aspirations and a sincere desire for a 
higher and better condition, so far as advan- 
tages, facilities, associates, or any surround- 
ings or environments are concerned, and if 
he continually send out his highest thought- 
forces for the realization of these desires, and 
continually water these forces with firm expec- 
tation as to their fulfilment, he will sooner or 
later find himself in the realization of these 
desires, and all in accordance with natural 
laws and forces. 

Fear brings its own fulfilment the same as 
hope. The same law operates, and if, as our 
good and valued friend, Job, said when the 
darkest days were setting in upon him, — that 
which I feared has come upon me, was 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 69 



true, how much more surely could he have 
brought about the opposite conditions, those 
he would have desired, had he have had even 
the slightest realization of his own powers, and 
had he acted the part of the master instead of 
that of the servant, had he have dictated 
terms instead of being dictated to, and thus 
suffering the consequences. ^ 

If one finds himself in any particular condi- 
tion, in the midst of any surroundings or en- 
vironments that are not desirable, that have 
nothing — at least for any length of time — 
that is of value to him, for his highest life 
and unfoldment, he has the remedy entirely 
within his own grasp the moment he realizes 
the power and supremacy of the forces of the 
mind and spirit; and, unless he intelligently 
use these forces, he drifts. Unless through 
them he becomes master and dictates, he be- 
comes the slave and is dictated to, and so is 
driven hither and thither.J 

Earnest, sincere desire, sincere aspiration 
for higher and better conditions or means to 
realize them, the thought-forces actively sent 
out for their realization, these continually 
watered by firm expectation without allowing 
the contrary, neutralizing force of fear ever 
to enter in, — this, accompanied by rightly 



IfO WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



directed work and activity, will bring about 
the fullest realization of one's highest desires 
and aspirations with a certainty as absolute 
as that effect follows cause. Each and every 
one of us can thus make for himself ever 
higher and higher conditions, can attract ever 
and ever higher influences, can realize an ever 
higher and higher ideal in life. These are 
the forces that are within us, simply waiting to 
be recognized and used, — the forces that we 
should infuse into and mould every-day life 
with. The moment we vitally recognize them, 
they become our servants and wait upon our 
bidding. ^ 

Are you, for example, a young man or a 
young woman desiring a college, a university 
education, or have you certain literary or 
artistic instincts your soul longs the more 
fully to realize and actualize, and seems there 
no way open for you to realize the fulfilment 
of your desires? But the power is in your 
hands the moment you recognize it there. 
Begin at once to set the right forces into 
operation. Put forth your ideal, which will 
begin to clothe itself in material form, send 
out your thought-forces for its realization, 
continually hold and add to them, always 
strongly but always calmly, never allow the 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 171 

element of fear, which will keep the realiza- 
tion just so much farther away, to enter in; 
but, on the contrary, continually water with 
firm expectation all the forces thus set into 
operation. Do not then sit and idly fold 
the hands, expecting to see all things drop 
into the lap, — God feeds the sparrow, but he 
does not throw the food into its nest, -J- but 
take hold of the first thing that offers itself 
for you to do, — work in the fields, at the desk, 
saw wood, wash dishes, tend behind the coun- 
ter, or whatever it may be, — be faithful to the 
thing in hand, always expecting something 
better, and know that this in hand is the thing 
that will open to you the next higher, and this 
the next and the next; and so realize that each 
thing thus taken hold of is but the agency that 
takes you each time a step nearer the realiza- 
tion of your fondest ideals. You then hold 
the key; and bolts that otherwise would re- 
main immovable, by this mighty force, will 
be thrown before you. 

We are born to be neither slaves nor beg- 
gars, but to dominion and to plenty. This is 
our rightful heritage, if we will but recognize 
and lay claim to it. Many a man and many a 
woman is to-day longing for conditions better 
and higher than he or she is in, who might be 



172 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



using the same time now spent in vain, in- 
definite, spasmodic longings, in putting into 
operation forces which, accompanied by the 
right personal activity, would speedily bring 
the fullest realization of his or her fondest 
dreams.^The great universe is filled with an 
abundance of all things, filled to overflowing. 
All there is, is in her, waiting only for the 
touch of the right forces to cast them forth. 
She is no respecter of persons outside of the 
fact that she always responds to the demands 
of the man or the woman who knows and uses 
the forces and powers he or she is endowed 
with. And to the demands of such she always 
opens her treasure-house, for the supply is al- 
ways equal to the demand. All things are in 
the hands of him who knows they are there. 

Of all known forms of energy, thought is 
the most subtle, the most irresistible force. 
It has always been operating; but, so far as 
the great masses of the people are concerned, 
it has been operating blindly, or, rather, they 
have been blind to its mighty power, except 
in the cases of a few here and there. And 
these, as a consequence, have been our proph- 
ets, our seers, our sages, our saviors, our men 
of great and mighty power. We are just be- 
ginning to grasp the tremendous truth that 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 73 



there is a science of thought, and that the laws 
governing it can be known and scientifically 
applied. The man who understands and who 
appropriates this fact has literally all things 
under his control. Heredity and its attendant 
circumstances and influences ? you ask. Most 
surely. The barriers which heredity builds, 
the same as those environment erects, when 
the awakened interior forces are considered, 
are as mud walls standing within the range of 
a Krupp gun : shattered and crumbled they are 
when the tremendous force is applied. 

Thought needs direction to be effective, and 
upon this effective results depend as much as 
upon the force itself. This brings us to the 
will. Will is not as is so often thought, a 
force in itself; will is the directing power. 
Thought is the force. Will gives direction. 
Thought scattered gives the weak, the uncer- 
tain, the vacillating, the aspiring, but the 
never-doing, the I-would-like-to, but the get- 
no-where, the attain-to-nothing man or woman. 
Thought steadily directed by the will, gives 
the strong, the firm, the never-yielding, the 
never-know-defeat man or woman, the man 
or woman who uses the very difficulties and 
hindrances that would dishearten the ordinary 
person, as stones with which he paves a way 



174 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

over which he triumphantly walks, who, by 
the very force he carries with him, so neutral- 
izes and transmutes the very obstacles that 
would bar his way that they fall before him, 
and in turn aid him on his way; the man or 
woman who, like the eagle, uses the very 
contrary wind that would thwart his flight, 
that would turn him and carry him in the oppo- 
site direction, as the very agency upon which 
he mounts and mounts and mounts, until actu- 
ally lost to the human eye, and which, in addi- 
tion to thus aiding him, brings to him an ever 
fuller realization of his own powers, or in 
other words, an ever greater power. 

It is this that gives the man or the woman 
who in storm or in sunny weather, rides over 
every obstacle, throws before him every bar- 
rier, and, as Browning has said, finally 
"arrives." Take, for example, the successful 
business man, — for it is all one, the law is the 
same in all cases, — the man who started with 
nothing except his own interior equipments. 
He has made up his mind to one thing, — suc- 
cess. This is his ideal. He thinks success, 
he sees success. He refuses to see anything 
else. He expects success : he thus attracts it to 
him, his thought-forces continually attract to 
him every agency that makes for success. He 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 75 

has set up the current, so that every wind that 
blows brings him success. He doesn't expect 
failure, and so he doesn't invite it. He has 
no time, no energies, to waste in fears or fore- 
bodings. He is dauntless, untiring, in his 
efforts. Let disaster come to-day, and to- 
morrow — ay, even yet to-day — he is getting 
his bearings, he is setting forces anew into 
operation ; and these very forces are of more 
value to him than the half million dollars of 
his neighbor who has suffered from the same 
disaster. We speak of a man's failing in 
business, little thinking that the real failure 
came long before, and that the final crash is 
but the culmination, the outward visible mani- 
festation, of the real failure that occurred 
within possibly long ago. A man carries his 
success or his failure with him : it is not depend- 
ent upon outside conditions. 

Will is the steady directing power: it is 
concentration. It is the pilot which, after the 
vessel is started by the mighty force within, 
puts it on its right course and keeps it true to 
that course, the pilot under whose control the 
rudder is which brings the great ocean liner, 
even through storms and gales, to an exact 
spot in the Liverpool port within a few min- 
utes of its scheduled time, and at times even 



iy6 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

upon the very minute. Will is the sun-glass 
which so concentrates and so focuses the sun's 
rays that they quickly burn a hole through the 
paper that is held before it. The same rays, 
not thus concentrated, not thus focused, would 
fall upon the paper for days without any effect 
whatever. Will is the means for the direct- 
ing, the concentrating, the focusing, of the 
thought-forces. Thought under wise direction, 
— this it is that does the work, that brings 
results, that makes the successful career. 
One object in mind which we never lose sight 
of ; an ideal steadily held before the mind, 
never lost sight of, never lowered, never 
swerved from, — this, with persistence, deter- 
mines all. Nothing can resist the power of 
thought, when thus directed by will. 

May not this power, then, be used for base as 
well as for good purposes, for selfish as well as 
for unselfish ends ? The same with this modifi- 
cation, — the more highly thought is spiritual- 
ized, the more subtle and powerful it becomes; 
and the more highly spiritualized the life, the 
farther is it removed from base, ignoble, self- 
ish ends. But, even if it can be thus used, 
let him who would so use it be careful, let 
him never forget that that mighty, searching, 
omnipotent law of the right, of truth, of justice, 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 77 

that runs through all the universe and that can 
never be annulled or even for a moment set 
aside, will drive him to the wall, will crush 
him with a terrific force if he so use it. 

Let him never forget that whatever he may 
get for self at the expense of some one else, 
through deception, through misrepresentation, 
through the exercise of the lower functions 
and powers, will by a law equally subtle, 
equally powerful, be turned into ashes in his 
very hands.) iThe honey he thinks he has se- 
cured will be turned into bitterness as he 
attempts to eat it ; the beautiful fruit he 
thinks is his will be as wormwood as he tries 
to enjoy it; the rose he has plucked will 
vanish, and he will find himself clutching a 
handful of thorns, which will penetrate to 
the very quick and which will flow the very 
life-blood from his hands.; For through the 
violation of a higher, an immutable law, 
though he may get this or that, the power of 
true enjoyment will be taken away, and what 
he gets will become as a thorn in his side: 
either this or it will sooner or later escape 
from his hands. God's triumphal-car moves 
in a direction and at a rate that is certain and 
absolute, and he who would oppose it or go 
contrary to it must fall and be crushed beneath 



1/8 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



its wheels; and for him this crushing is neces 
sary, in order that it may bring him the more 
quickly to a knowledge of the higher laws, to 
a realization of the higher self. 

This brings to our notice two orders of will, 
which we may term, for convenience' sake, the 
human and the divine. The human will is 
the one just noticed, the sense will, the will 
of the lower self, that which seeks its own 
ends regardless of its connection with the 
greater whole. The divine will is the will of 
the higher self, the god-self, that that never 
makes an error, that never leads into difficul- 
ties. How attain to its realization? How 
call it into a dominating activity? Through 
an awakening to and a living in the higher, 
the god-self, thus making it one with God's 
will, one with the will of infinite intelligence, 
infinite love, infinite wisdom, infinite power; 
and when this is done, no mistakes can be 
made, any more than limits can be set. 

It is thus that the Infinite Power works 
through and for us — true inspiration — while 
our part is simply to see that our connection 
with this power is consciously and perfectly 
kept. And, when we come to a knowledge of 
the true nature, a knowledge of the true self, 
when we come to a conscious realization of 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 79 



the fact that we are one with, a part of, this 
spirit of infinite life, infinite love, infinite 
wisdom, infinite power, and infinite plenty, do 
we not see that we lack for nothing, that all 
things are ours? It is then ours to speak the 
word : desire induces and gives place to reali- 
zation. If you are intelligence, if you are 
power, if you are that all-seeing, all-knowing, 
all-doing, all-loving, all-having, that eternal 
self, that eternal one without beginning and 
without end, the same yesterday, to-day, and 
forever, then all things are yours, and you 
lack for nothing; and, when you come con- 
sciously to know and to live this truth, then the 
whole of life for you is summed up in the one 
word realization. The striving, the pulling, 
the running hither and thither to accomplish 
this or that, that takes place on all planes of 
life below this highest plane, gives place to 
this realization ; and you and your desire be- 
come one. 

And what does this mean? Simply this: 
that you have found and have literally entered 
into the kingdom of heaven, and heaven means 
harmony, so that you have entered into the 
kingdom of harmony, — harmony or oneness 
with the Infinite Life, the Infinite God. And 
do we not, then, clearly see the rational and 



l8o WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

scientific basis for the injunction — Seek ye 
first the kingdom of heaven, and all these other 
things shall be added unto you? Than this 
there is nothing in all the wide universe more 
scientific, nothing more practical ; and in the 
light of this can we not also see how readily 
follows the injunction — Take ye no thought 
for the things of the morrow, for the things of 
the morrow will take care of themselves? 
This realization gives you that care-less atti- 
tude, free from care. The Infinite Power does 
the work for you, and you are relieved of the 
responsibility. Your responsibility lies in 
keeping yourself in a faithful and a never- 
failing connection with this Infinite Source. 
Why, I know a few lives that have come into 
such a conscious oneness with the Infinite 
Life, and who so continually live in its 
realization, that all things that have just been 
said are absolutely true in their cases. The 
solution of all things they thus put into the 
law, so that, when the time comes, the diffi- 
culty is solved, the course is clear, the way is 
opened, or the means are at hand. When one 
knows whereof he speaks, of this he can speak 
with authority. 

When this realization comes, fear goes, hope 
attends, faith dominates, — the faith of to-day 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING l8l 

which gives place to the realization of to-mor- 
row. We then have nothing to do with the 
past, nothing to do with the future ; for the 
whole of life is determined by the ever-pres- 
ent to-day. As my life to-day has been deter- 
mined by the way I lived my yesterday, so my 
to-morrow is being determined by the way I 
live my to-day. Let me then live in this eter- 
nal now, and realize that I am at this very mo- 
ment living the eternal life as much as I ever 
shall or can live it. I will then waste no time 
with the past, except perhaps occasionally to 
give thanks that its then seeming trials, sor- 
rows, errors, and stumblings have brought me 
all the sooner into harmony with the laws of 
the higher life. Let me waste no time with 
the future, no time in idle dreaming, neither 
in fears nor forebodings, thus inviting and 
opening the door for the entrance of their 
actualizations; but rather let me, by the 
thoughts and so by the deeds of to-day, make 
the future exactly what I will. 

Every act is preceded and given birth to by 
a thought, the act repeated forms the habit, 
the habit determines the character, and char- 
acter determines the life, the destiny, — a most 
significant, a most tremendous truth : thought 
on the one hand, life, destiny, on the other. 



1 82 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

And how simplified, when we realize that it is 
merely the thought of the present hour, and 
the next when it comes, and the next, and the 
next! so life, destiny, on the one hand, the 
thoughts of the present hour, on the other. 
This is the secret of character-building. How 
wonderfully simple, though what vigilance it 
demands ! 

What, shall we ask, is the place, what the 
value, of prayer? Prayer, as every act of de- 
votion, brings us into an ever greater con- 
scious harmony with the Infinite, the one pearl 
of great price; for it is this harmony which 
brings all other things. Prayer is the soul's 
sincere desire, and thus is its own answer, as 
the sincere desire made active and accom- 
panied by faith sooner or later gives place to 
realization; for faith is an invisible and 
invincible magnet, and attracts to itself what- 
ever it fervently desires and calmly and persist- 
ently expects. This is absolute, and the results 
will be absolute in exact proportion as this 
operation of the thought forces, as this faith is 
absolute, and relative in exact proportion as it 
is relative. The Master said, What things 
soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye 
receive them and ye shall have them. Can 
any law be more clearly enunciated, can any- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 83 



thing be more definite and more absolute than 
this? According to thy faith be it unto thee. 
Do we at times fail in obtaining the results 
we desire? The fault, the failure, lies not in 
the law but in ourselves. Regarded in its 
right and true light, than prayer there is noth- 
ing more scientific, nothing more valuable, 
nothing more effective. 

This conscious realization of oneness with 
the Infinite Life is of all things the one thing 
to be desired; for, when this oneness is re- 
alized and lived in, all other things follow in 
its train, there are no desires that shall not be 
realized, for God has planted in the human 
breast no desire without its corresponding 
means of realization. No harm can come nigh, 
nothing can touch us, there will be nothing to 
fear; for we shall thus attract only the good. 
And whatever changes time may bring, under- 
standing the law, we shall always expect some- 
thing better, and thus set into operation the 
forces that will attract that something, realiz- 
ing that many times angels go out that arch- 
angels may enter in; and this is always true 
in the case of the life of this higher realiza- 
tion. And why should we have any fear what- 
ever, — fear even for the nation, as is many 
times expressed? God is behind His world, 



184 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



in love and with infinite care and watchfulness 
working out his great and almighty plans; 
and whatever plans men may devise, He will 
when the time is ripe either frustrate and 
shatter, or aid and push through to their most 
perfect culmination, — frustrate and shatter if 
contrary to, aid and actualize if in harmony 
with His. 

It will readily be seen what a power the life 
that is fully awake, that fully grasps and uses 
the great forces of its own interior self, can be 
in the service of mankind. One with these 
forces highly spiritualized will not have to go 
here and there to do the greatest service for 
mankind. Such a one can sit in his cabin, 
in his tent, in his own home, or, as he goes 
here and there, he can continually send out 
influences of the most potent and powerful 
nature, — influences that will have their effect, 
that will do their work, and that will reach 
to the uttermost parts of the world. Than 
this there can be no more valuable, more vital 
service, nor one of a higher nature. 

These facts, the facts relating to the powers 
that come with the higher awakening, have 
been dealt with somewhat fully, to show that 
the matters along the lines of man's interior, 
intuitive, spiritual, thought, soul life, in- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 85 



stead of being, as they are so many times re- 
garded, merely indefinite, sentimental, or im- 
practical, are, on the contrary, powerfully, om- 
nipotently real, and are of all practical things 
in the world the most practical, and, in the 
truest and deepest sense, the only truly prac- 
tical things there are. And pre-eminently is 
this true when we look with a long range of 
vision, past the mere to-day, to the final out- 
come, to the time when that transition we are 
accustomed to call death takes place, and all 
accumulations and possessions material are 
left behind, and the soul takes with it only 
the unfoldment and growth of the real life; 
and unless it has this, when all else must be 
left behind, it goes out poor indeed. And 
a most wonderful and beautiful fact of it all 
is this: that all growth, all advancement, all 
attainment made along the lines of the spirit- 
ual, the soul, the real life, is so much made 
forever, and can never be lost. Hence the 
great fact in the admonition, Lay not up for 
yourselves treasures on earth, where moth doth 
corrupt and where thieves break through and 
steal ; but lay up for yourselves treasures in 
heaven, — the interior, spiritual kingdom, — 
where neither moth doth corrupt nor where 
thieves break through and steal. 



1 86 WHAT ALL THE WORLD ? S A-SEEKIXG 

What then, again let us ask, is love to 
God ? It is far more, we have found, than 
a mere sentimental abstraction. It is this 
awakening to the higher, the god-self, a com- 
ing into the conscious realization of the fact 
that your life is one with, is a part of, the 
Infinite Life, the full realization of the fact 
that you are a spiritual being here and now, 
at this very moment, and a living as such. 
It is being true to the light that lighteth every 
man that cometh into the world, and so a 
finding of the Christ within; a realization 
of the fact that God is the life of your life, 
and so not afar off ; a realization of a oneness 
so perfect that you are able to say, as did His 
other son, "I and my Father are one" — the 
ultimate destiny of each human soul, each of 
the Father's children, for all, no matter what 
differences man may see, are equal in His 
sight ; and He created not one in vain. So 
love to God in its true expression is not a 
mere sentimentality, a mere abstraction : it is 
life, it is growth, it is spiritual awakening 
and unfoldment, it is realization. Again, it 
is life: it is the more abundant life. 

Then recognize this fact, and so fill your 
life with an intense, a passionate love for 
God. Then take this life, so rich, so abun- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 187 



dant, and so powerful, and lose it in the love 
and service of your fellow-men, the Father's 
other children. Fill it with an intense, a pas- 
sionate love for service; and when this shall 
have been done, your life is in complete har- 
mony with all the law and the prophets, in 
complete harmony with the two great and de- 
termining facts of human life and destiny,— 

love to God and love to one's fellow-men, the 

two eternal principles upon which the great 
universal religion, which is slowly and gradu- 
ally evolving out an almost endless variety and 
form, is to rest. Do this, and feel once for 
all the power and the thrill of the life uni- 
versal. Do this, and find yourself coming into 
the full realization of such splendors and 
beauties as all the royal courts of this 
world combined have never been able even to 
dream of. 

When the step from the personal to the im- 
personal, from the personal, the individual, 
to the universal, is once made, the great solu- 
tion of life has come; and by this same step 
one enters at once into the realm of all power. 
When this is done, and one fully realizes the 
fact that the greatest life is the life spent in 
the service of all mankind, and then when he 
vitally grasps that great eternal principle of 



1 88 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

light, of truth, of justice, that runs through all 
the universe, and which, though temporarily 
it may seem to be perverted, always and with 
never an exception eventually prevails, and 
that with an omnipotent power, — he then 
holds the key to all situations. 

A king of this nature goes about his work 
absolutely regardless of what men may say or 
hear or think or do; for he himself has abso- 
lutely nothing to gain or nothing to lose, and 
nothing of this nature can come near him or 
touch him, for he is standing not in the per- 
sonal, but in the universal. He is then in 
God's work, and the very God-powers are his, 
and it seems as if the very angels of heaven 
come to minister unto him and to move things 
his way; and this is true, very true, for he 
himself is simply moving God's way, and 
when this is so, the certainty of the outcome 
is absolute. 

How often did the Master say, "I seek not 
to do mine own will, but the will of the Father 
who sent me"! Here is the world's great 
example of the life out of the personal and in 
the universal, hence his great power. The 
same has been true of all the saviors, the 
prophets, the seers, the sages, and the leaders 
in the world's history, of all of truly great 
and lasting power. 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING l8o, 

He who would then come into the secret of 
power must come from the personal into the 
universal, and with this comes not only great 
power, but also freedom from the vexations 
and perplexities that rise from the misconstru- 
ing of motives, the opinions of others; for 
such a one cares nothing as to what men may 
say, or hear, or think, or do, so long as he is 
true to the great principles of right and truth 
before him. And, if we will search carefully, 
we shall find that practically all the perplexi- 
ties and difficulties of life have their origin on 
the side of the personal. 

Much is said to young men to-day about 
success in life, — success generally though, as 
the world calls success. It is well, however, 
always to bear in mind the fact that there is 
a success which is a miserable, a deplorable 
failure; while, on the other hand, there is a 
failure which is a grand, a noble, a God-like 
success. And one crying need of the age is 
that young men be taught the true dignity, 
nobility, and power of such a failure, — such a 
failure in the eyes of the world to-day, but 
such a success in the eyes of God and the 
coming ages. When this is done, there will 
be among us more prophets, more saviors, 
more men of grand and noble stature, who 



190 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

with a firm and steady hand will hold the 
lighted torch of true advancement high up 
among the people; and they will be those 
whom the people will gladly follow, for they 
will be those who will speak and move with 
authority, true sons of God, true brothers 
of men. A man may make his millions and 
his life be a failure still. 



The promise was given that our conversation 
should not be extended; and unless we con- 
clude it now, the promise will not be kept. 
Our aim at the outset, you will remember, 
was to find answer to the question — How can 
I make life yield its fullest and best? how can 
I know the true secret of power? how can I 
attain to true greatness? how can I fill the 
whole of life with a happiness, a peace, a joy, 
a satisfaction, that is ever rich and abiding, 
that ever increases, never diminishes? 

Two great laws come forward : the one, 
that we find our own lives in losing them in 
the service of others, — love to the fellow- 
man; the other, that all life is one with, 
is part of, the Infinite Life, that we are not ma- 
terial, but spiritual beings, — spiritual beings 
here and now, and a living as such, which 
brings us in turn to a realization of the higher, 



WHAT ALL THE WORLDS A-SEEKING I9I 



the god-self, thus bringing us into the realm 
of all peace, all power, and all plenty, — this 
is love to God. 

And I wonder now if we have found the an- 
swer true and satisfactory. We have sat at 
the feet of the Master Teacher, and he has 
told us that we have. We have found that 
through them, and through them alone, true 
greatness, power, and success can come; that 
through them comes the richest joy, the great- 
est peace and satisfaction this world can know. 
We have also found that, if one's desire is to 
make life narrow, pinched, and of little value, 
to rob it of its chief charms, the only require- 
ment necessary is to become self-centred, to 
live continually with the little, stunted self, 
which will inevitably grow more and more di- 
minutive and shrivelled as time passes, instead 
of reaching out and having a part in the great 
life of humanity, thus inimitably intensifying 
and multiplying his own. For each act of 
humble service is that divine touching of the 
ground which enables one to get the spring 
whereby he leaps to ever greater heights. 
We have found that a recognition of these 
two laws enables one to grow and develop the 
fullest and richest life here, and that they are 
the two gates whereby all who would must 
enter the kingdom of heaven. 



192 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

Around this great and sweet-incensed altar 
of love, service, and self-devotion to God and 
the fellow-man, can and do all mankind bow 
and worship. To it can all religions and creeds 
subscribe : it is the universal religion. 

Then become at one with God, as did His 
other son, through the awakening to the real 
self and by living continually in this the 
higher, the god-self. Become at one with 
humanity, as did His other son, by bringing 
your life into harmony with this great, immu- 
table law of love and service and self-devotion, 
and so feel once for all the power and the 
thrill of the life universal. 

Yours will then be a life the greatest, the 
grandest, the most joyous this world can 
know; for you will indeed be living the 
Christ-life, the life that is beyond compare, 
the life to which all the world stretches out 
its eager palms, and innumerable companies 
will rise up and call you blessed, and give 
thanks that such a life is the rich heritage of 
the world. The song continually arising from 
your lips will then be, There is joy, only joy ; for 
we are all one with the Infinite Life, all parts 
of the one great whole, and the Spirit of Infinite 
Goodness and Love is ever ruling over all. 



PART VI. 

CHARACTER-BUILDING THOUGHT 
POWER. 



CHARACTER-BUILDING THOUGHT 
POWER. 

A thought, -good or evil, - an act, in time a habit, - so runs life's 
law : what you live in your thought-world, that, sooner or later you 
will find objectified in your life. 

UNCONSCIOUSLY we are forming habits every 
moment of our lives. Some are habits of a 
desirable nature; some are those of a most 
undesirable nature. Some, though not so bad 
in themselves, are exceedingly bad in their 
cumulative effects, and cause us at times much 
loss, much pain and anguish, while their oppo- 
sites would, on the contrary, bring us much 
peace and joy, as well as a continually increas- 
ing power. 

Have we it within our power to determine at 
all times what types of habits shall take form in 
our lives? In other words, is habit-forming, 
character-building, a matter of mere chance, or 
have we it within our own control? We have, 
entirely and absolutely. « I will be what I will 
to be," can be said and should be said by every 
human soul. 

After this has been bravely and determinedly 
said, and not only said, but fully inwardly 
realized, something yet remains. Something 



I96 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



remains to be said regarding the great law un- 
derlying habit-forming, character-building ; fo 
there is a simple, natural, and thoroughly sci 
entitle method that all should know. A metho 
whereby old, undesirable, earth-binding habit 
can be broken, and new, desirable, heaven-liftin 
habits can be acquired, — a method whereb 
life in part or in its totality can be changed 
provided one is sufficiently in earnest to know 
and, knowing it, to apply the law. 

Thought is the force underlying all. And 
what do we mean by this? Simply this : Your 
every act — every conscious act — is preceded 
by a thought. Your dominating thoughts de- 
termine your dominating actions. The acts 
repeated crystallize themselves into the habit. 
The aggregate of your habits is your character. 
Whatever, then, you would have your acts, you 
must look well to the character of the thought 
you entertain. Whatever act you would not do, 
— habit you would not acquire, — you must look 
well to it that you do not entertain the type of 
thought that will give birth to this act, this 
habit. 

It is a simple psychological law that any type 
of thought, if entertained for a sufficient length 
of time, will, by and by, reach the motor tracks of 
the brain, and finally burst forth into action. 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING lCfl 



Murder can be and many times is committed in 
this way, the same as all undesirable things are 
done. On the other hand, the greatest powers 
are grown, the most God-like characteristics are 
engendered, the most heroic acts are performed 
in the same way. 

The thing clearly to understand is this : That 
the thought is always parent to the act. Now, 
we have it entirely in our own hands to deter- 
mine exactly what thoughts we entertain. In 
the realm of our own minds we have absolute 
control, or we should have, and if at any time 
we have not, then there is a method by which 
we can gain control, and in the realm of the 
mind become thorough masters. In order to 
get to the very foundation of the matter, let us 
look to this for a moment. For if thought is 
always parent to our acts, habits, character, life, 
then it is first necessary that we know fully how 
to control our thoughts. 

Here let us refer to that law of the mind 
which is the same as is the law in connection 
with the reflex nerve system of the body, the 
law which says that whenever one does a certain 
thing in a certain way it is easier to do the same 
thing in the same way the next time, and still 
easier the next, and the next, and the next, 
until in time it comes to pass that no effort is 



I98 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

required, or no effort worth speaking of; but 
on the contrary, to do the opposite would re- 
quire the effort. The mind carries with it the 
power that perpetuates its own type of thought, 
the same as the body carries with it through the 
reflex nerve system the power which perpetu- 
ates and makes continually easier its own par- 
ticular acts. Thus a simple effort to control 
one's thoughts, a simple setting about it, even if 
at first failure is the result, and even if for a time 
failure seems to be about the only result, will in 
time, sooner or later, bring him to the point of 
easy, full, and complete control. 

Each one, then, can grow the power of deter- 
mining, controlling his thought, the power of 
determining what types of thought he shall and 
what types he shall not entertain. For let us 
never part in mind with this fact, that every 
earnest effort along any line makes the end aimed 
at just a little easier for each succeeding effort, 
even if, as has been said, apparent failure is the 
result of the earlier efforts. This is a case where 
even failure is success, for the failure is not in 
the effort, and every earnest effort adds an incre- 
ment of power that will eventually accomplish 
the end aimed at. We can, then, gain the full and 
complete power of determining what character, 
what type of thoughts we entertain 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 1 99 



Shall we now give attention to some two or 
three concrete cases? Here is a man, the 
cashier of a large mercantile establishment, or 
cashier of a bank. In his morning paper he 
reads of a man who has become suddenly rich, 
has made a fortune of half a million or a mil- 
lion dollars in a few hours through speculation 
on the stock market. Perhaps he has seen an 
account of another man who has done prac- 
tically the same thing lately. He is not quite 
wise enough, however, to comprehend the fact 
that when he reads of one or two cases of this 
kind he could find, were he to look into the 
matter carefully, one or two hundred cases of 
men who have lost all they had in the same 
way. He thinks, however, that he will be one 
of the fortunate ones. He does not fully realize 
that there are no short cuts to wealth honestly 
made. He takes a part of his savings, and as 
is true in practically all cases of this kind, he 
loses all that he has put in. Thinking now that 
he sees why he lost, and that had he more 
money he would be able to get back what he 
has lost, and perhaps make a handsome sum in 
addition, and make it quickly, the thought 
comes to him to use some of the funds he has 
charge of. In nine cases out of ten, if not in 
ten cases in every ten, the results that inevitably 



200 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

follow this are known sufficiently well to make 
it unnecessary to follow him farther. Where is 
the man's safety in the light of what we have 
been considering? Simply this: the moment 
the thought of using for his own purpose funds 
belonging to others enters his mind, if he is 
wise he will instantly put the thought from his 
mind. If he is a fool he will entertain it. In 
the degree in which he entertains it, it will grow 
upon him ; it will become the absorbing thought 
in his mind ; it will finally become master of his 
will power, and through rapidly succeeding 
steps, dishonor, shame, degradation, peniten- 
tiary, remorse will be his. It is easy for him to 
put the thought from his mind when it first 
enters ; but as he entertains it, it grows into 
such proportions that it becomes more and 
more difficult for him to put it from his mind ; 
and by and by it becomes practically impossible 
for him to do it. The light of the match, which 
but a little effort of the breath would have ex- 
tinguished at first, has imparted a name that is 
raging through the entire building, and now it 
is almost, if not quite impossible to conquer it. 

Shall we notice another concrete case? a trite 
case, perhaps, but one in which we can see how 
habit is formed, and also how the same habit 
can be unformed. Here is a young man, he 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 201 



may be the son of poor parents, or he may be 
the son of rich parents; one in the ordinary 
ranks of life, or one of high social standing, 
whatever that means. He is good-hearted, one 
of good impulses, generally speaking, — a good 
fellow. He is out with some companions, com- 
panions of the same general type. They are 
out for a pleasant evening, out for a good 
time. They are apt at times to be thoughtless, 
even careless. The suggestion is made by 
one of the company, not that they get drunk, 
no, not at all; but merely that they go and 
have something to drink together. The young 
man whom we first mentioned, wanting to be 
genial, scarcely listens to the suggestion that 
comes to his inner consciousness — that it will 
be better for him not to fall in with the others 
in this. He does not stop long enough to 
realize the fact that the greatest strength and 
nobility of character lies always in taking a 
firm stand on the side of the right, and allow 
himself to be influenced by nothing that will 
weaken this stand. He goes, therefore, with his 
companions to the drinking place. With the 
same or with other companions this is repeated 
now and then ; and each time it is repeated his 
power of saying " No " is gradually decreasing. 
In this way he has grown a little liking for 



202 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKIXG 



intoxicants, and takes them perhaps now and 
then by himself. He does not dream, or in the 
slightest degree realize, what way he is tending, 
until there comes a day when he wakens to the 
consciousness of the fact that he hasn't the 
power nor even the impulse to resist the taste 
which has gradually grown into a minor form 
of craving for intoxicants. Thinking, however, 
that he will be able to stop when he is really 
in danger of getting into the drink habit, he 
goes thoughtlessly and carelessly on. We will 
pass over the various intervening steps and 
come to the time when we find him a confirmed 
drunkard. It is simply the same old story told 
a thousand or even a million times over. 

He finally awakens to his true condition ; 
and through the shame, the anguish, the degra- 
dation, and the want that comes upon him he 
longs for a return of the days when he was a 
free man. But hope has almost gone from his 
life. It would have been easier for him never 
to have begun, and easier for him to have 
stopped before he reached his present con- 
dition, but even in his present condition, 
be it the lowest and the most helpless and 
hopeless that can be ima*gined, he has the 
power to get out of it and be a free man once 
again. Let us see. The desire for drink comes 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



upon him again. If he entertain the thought, 
the desire, he is lost again. His only hope, his 
only means of escape is this : the moment, aye, 
the very instant the thought comes to him, if he 
will put it out of his mind he will thereby put 
out the little flame of the match. If he enter- 
tain the thought the little flame will communi- 
cate itself until almost before he is aware of it 
a consuming fire is raging, and then effort is 
almost useless. The thought must be banished 
from the mind the instant it enters ; dalliance 
with it means failure and defeat, or a fight that 
will be indescribably fiercer than it would be if 
the thought is ejected at the beginning. 

And here we must say a word regarding a 
certain great law that we may call the " law of 
indirectness." A thought can be put out of the 
mind easier and more successfully, not by dwell- 
ing upon it, not by attempting to put it out 
directly, but by throwing the mind on to some 
other object, by putting some other object of 
thought into the mind. This may be, for ex- 
ample, the ideal of full and perfect self-mastery, 
or it may be something of a nature entirely 
distinct from the thought which presents itself, 
something to which the mind goes easily and 
naturally. This will in time become the absorb- 
ing thought in the mind, and the danger is past. 



204 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

This same course of action repeated, will gradu- 
ally grow the power of putting more readily 
out of mind the thought of drink as it presents 
itself, and will gradually grow the power of 
putting into the mind those objects of thought 
one most desires. The result will be that as 
time passes the thought of drink will present 
itself less and less, and when it does present 
itself it can be put out of the mind more easily 
each succeeding time, until the time comes 
when it can be put out without difficulty, and 
eventually the time will come when the thought 
will enter the mind no more at all. 
^/ Still another case. You may be more or less 
/of an irritable nature — naturally, perhaps, pro- 
voked easily to anger. Some one says some- 
thing or does something that you dislike, and 
your first impulse is to show resentment and 
possibly to give way to anger. In the degree that 
you allow this resentment to display itself, that 
you allow yourself to give way to anger, in 
that degree will it become easier to do the same 
thing when any cause, even a very slight cause, 
presents itself. It will, moreover, become con- 
tinually harder for you to refrain from it, until 
resentment, anger, and possibly even hatred and 
revenge become characteristics of your nature, 
robbing it of its sunniness, its charm, and its 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 20$ 

brightness for all with whom you come in con- 
tact. If, however, the instant the impulse to 
resentment and anger arises, you check it then 
and there, and throw the mind on to some other 
object of thought, the power will gradually 
grow itself of doing this same thing more 
readily, more easily, as succeeding like causes 
present themselves, until by and by the time 
will come when there will be scarcely anything 
that can irritate you, and nothing that can im- 
pel you to anger; until by and by a matchless 
brightness and charm of nature and disposition 
will become habitually yours, a brightness and 
charm you would scarcely think possible to-day. 
And so we might take up case after case, char- 
acteristic after characteristic, habit after habit. 
The habit of fault-finding and its opposite are 
grown in identically the same way ; the charac- 
teristic of jealousy and its opposite ; the char- 
acteristic of fear and its opposite. In this same 
way we grow either love or hatred ; in this way 
we come to take a gloomy, pessimistic view of 
life, which objectifies itself in a nature, a dis- 
position of this type, or we grow that sunny, 
hopeful, cheerful, buoyant nature that brings 
with it so much joy and beauty and power for 
ourselves, as well as so much hope and inspira- 
tion and joy for all the world. 



206 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



There is nothing more true in connection with 
human life than that we grow into the likeness 
of those things we contemplate. Literally and 
scientifically and necessarily true is it that, " as 
a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." The 
" is " part is his character. His character is the 
sum total of his habits. His habits have been 
formed by his conscious acts ; but every con- 
scious act is, as we have found, preceded by a 
thought. And so we have it — thought on the 
one hand, character, life, destiny on the other. 
And simple it becomes when we bear in mind 
that it is simply the thought of the present 
moment, and the next moment when it is upon 
us, and then the next, and so on through all 
time. 

One can in this way attain to whatever ideals 
he would attain to. Two steps are necessary : 
first, as the days pass, to form one's ideals ; and 
second, to follow them continually whatever may 
arise, wherever they may lead him. Always 
remember that the great and strong character is 
the one who is ever ready to sacrifice the pres- 
ent pleasure for the future good. He who will 
thus follow his highest ideals as they present 
themselves to him day after day, year after 
year, will find that as Dante, following his be- 
loved from world to world, finally found her at 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 2C>7 



the gates of Paradise, so he will find himself 
eventually at the same gates. Life is not, we 
may say, for mere passing pleasure, but for the 
highest unfoldment that one can attain to, the 
noblest character that one can grow, and for the 
greatest service that one can render to all man- 
kind. In this, however, we will find the highest 
pleasure, for in this the only real pleasure lies. 
He who would find it by any short cuts, or by 
entering upon any other paths, will inevitably 
find that his last state is always worse than his 
first ; and if he proceed upon paths other than 
these he will find that he will never find real 
and lasting pleasure at all. The question is 
not, What are the conditions in our lives? but, 
How do we meet the conditions that we find 
there? And whatever the conditions are, it is 
unwise and profitless to look upon them, even 
if they are conditions that we would have other- 
wise, in the attitude of complaint, for complaint 
will bring depression, and depression will weaken 
and possibly even kill the spirit that would 
engender the power that would enable us to 
bring into our lives an entirely new set of 
conditions. 

In order to be concrete, even at the risk of 
being personal, I will say that in my own expe- 
rience there have come at various times into my 



2o8 WHAT ALL THE WORLD*S A-SEEKING 

life circumstances and conditions that I gladly 
would have run from at the time — conditions 
that caused at the time humiliation and shame 
and anguish of spirit. But invariably, as suffi- 
cient time has passed, I have been able to look 
back and see clearly the part which every ex- 
perience of the type just mentioned had to play 
in my life. I have seen the lessons it was essen- 
tial for me to learn ; and the result is that now 
I would not drop a single one of these expe- 
riences from my life, humiliating and hard to 
bear as they were at the time ; no, not for the 
world.KAnd here is also a lesson I have learned : 
whatever conditions are in my life to-day that 
are not the easiest and most agreeable, and 
whatever conditions of this type all coming 
time may bring, I will take them just as they 
come, without complaint, without depression, 
and meet them in the wisest possible way; 
knowing that they are the best possible condi- 
tions that could be in my life at the time, or 
otherwise they would not be there; realizing 
the fact that, although I may not at the time see 
why they are in my life, although I may not 
see just what part they have to play, the time will 
Come, and when it comes I will see it all, and 
thank God for every condition just as it came. » 
Each one is so apt to think that his own con- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 209 



ditions, his own trials or troubles or sorrows, or 
his own struggles, as the case may be, are 
greater than those of the great mass of mankind, 
or possibly greater than those of any one else in 
the world. He forgets that each one has his 
own peculiar trials or troubles or sorrows to 
bear, or struggles in habits to overcome, and 
that his is but the common lot of all the human 
race. We are apt to make the mistake in this — 
in that we see and feel keenly our own trials, or 
adverse conditions, or characteristics to be over- 
come, while those of others we do not see so 
clearly, and hence we are apt to think that they 
are not at all equal to our own. Each has his 
own problems to work out. Each must work 
out his own problems. Each must grow the 
insight that will enable him to see what the 
causes are that have brought the unfavorable 
conditions into his life; each must grow the 
strength that will enable him to face these con- 
ditions, and to set into operation forces that will 
bring about a different set of conditions. We 
may be of aid to one another by way of suggest- 
ion, by way of bringing to one another a knowl- 
edge of certain higher laws and forces, —laws 
and forces that will make it easier to do that 
which we would do. ) The doing, however, must 
be done by each one for himself. 



2IO WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

And so the way to get out of any conditions 
we have gotten into, either knowingly or inad- 
vertently, either intentionally or unintentionally, 
is to take time to look the conditions squarely 
in the face, and to find the law whereby they 
have come about. And when we have discov- 
ered the law, the thing to do is not to rebel 
against it, not to resist it, but to go with it by 
working in harmony with it. If we work in har- 
mony with it, it will work for our highest good, 
and will take us wheresoever we desire. If we 
oppose it, if we resist it, if we fail to work in 
harmony with it, it will eventually break us to 
pieces. The law is immutable in its workings. 
Go with it, and it brings all things our way; 
resist it, and it brings suffering, pain, loss, and 
desolation. 

But a few days ago I was talking with a lady 
a most estimable lady living on a little New 
England farm of some five or six acres. Her 
husband died a few years ago, a good-hearted, 
industrious man, but one who spent practically 
all of his earnings in drink. When he died the 
little farm was unpaid for, and the wife found her- 
self without any visible means of support, with 
a family of several to care for. Instead of being 
discouraged with what many would have called 
her hard lot, instead of rebelling against the 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 211 

circumstances in which she found herself, she 
faced the matter bravely, firmly believing that 
there were ways by which she could manage, 
though she could not see them clearly at the 
time. She took up her burden where she found 
it, and went bravely forward. For several years 
she has been taking care of summer boarders 
"ho come to that part of the country, getting 
up regularly, she told me, at from half-past 
three to four o'clock in die morning, and work- 
ing until ten o'clock each night. In the winter- 
time, when this means of revenue is cut off, she 
has gone out to do nursing in the country round 
about. In this way the little farm is now almost 
paid for; her children have been kept in school, 
and they are now able to aid her to a greater or 
less extent. Through it all she has entertained 
no fears nor forebodings; she has shown no 
rebellion of any kind. She has not kicked 
against the circumstances which brought about 
the conditions in which she found herself, but 
she has put herself into harmony with the law 
that would bring her into another set of condi- 
tions. And through it all, she told me, she had 
been continually grateful that she has been able 
to work, and that whatever her own circum- 
stances have been, she has never yet failed to 
find some one whose circumstances were still 



212 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



a little worse than hers, and for whom it was 
not possible for her to render some little ser- 
vice. 

Most heartily she appreciates the fact, and 
most grateful is she for it, that the little home 
is now almost paid for, and soon no more of her 
earnings will have to go out in that channel. 
The dear little home, she said, would be all the 
more precious to her by virtue of the fact that 
it was finally hers through her own efforts. The 
strength and nobility of character that have come 
to her during these years, the sweetness of dis- 
position, the sympathy and care for others, her 
faith in the final triumph of all that is honest 
and true and pure and good, are qualities that 
thousands and hundreds of thousands of women, 
yes, of both men and women, who are appar- 
ently in better circumstances in life can justly 
envy. And should the little farm home be taken 
away to-morrow, she has gained something that 
a farm of a thousand acres could not buy. By 
going about her work in the way she has gone 
about it the burden of it all has been light- 
ened, and her work has been made truly en- 
joyable. 

Let us take a moment to see how these same 
conditions would have been met by a person of 
less wisdom, one not so far-sighted as this dear, 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 213 



good woman has been. For a time possibly 
her spirit would have been crushed. Fears and 
forebodings of all kinds would probably have 
taken hold of her, and she would have felt that 
nothing that she could do would be of any 
avail. Or, she might have rebelled against the 
agencies, against the law which brought about 
the conditions in which she found herself, and 
she might have become embittered against the 
world, and gradually also against the various 
people with whom she came in contact. Or 
again, she might have thought that her efforts 
would be unable to meet the circumstances, and 
that it was the duty of some one to lift her out of 
her difficulties. In this way no progress at all 
would have been made towards the accomplish- 
ment of the desired results, and continually she 
would have felt more keenly the circumstances 
in which she found herself, because there was 
nothing else to occupy her mind. In this way 
the little farm would not have become hers, she 
would not have been able to do anything for 
others, and her nature would have become em- 
bittered against everything and everybody. 

True it is, then, not, What are the conditions 
in one's life? but, How does he meet the condi- 
tions that he finds there? This will determine 
all. And if at any time we are apt to think 



214 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



that our own lot is about the hardest there is, 
and if we are able at any time to persuade our- 
selves that we can find no one whose lot is just 
a little harder than ours, let us then study for a 
little while the character Pompilia, in Brown- 
ing's poem,* and after studying it, thank God 
that the conditions in our life are so favorable; 
and then set about with a trusting and intrepid 
spirit to actualize the conditions that we most 
desire. 

Thought is at the bottom of all progress or 
retrogression, of all success or failure, of all 
that is desirable or undesirable in human life. 
The type of thought we entertain both creates 
and draws conditions that crystallize about it 
conditions exactly the same in nature as is the 
thought that gives them form. Thoughts are 
forces, and each creates of its kind, whether we 
realize it or not. The great law of th^drawing 
power of the mind, which says that like creates 
like, and that like attracts like, is continually 
working in every human life, for it is one of the 
great immutable laws of the universe. For one 
to take time to see clearly the things he would 
attain to, and then to hold that ideal steadily 
and continually before his mind, never allowing 

* " The Ring and the Book," by Robert Browning. 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 21$ 



faith — his positive thought-forces — to give way 
to or to be neutralized by doubts and fears, and 
then to set about doing each day what his hands 
find to do, never complaining, but spending the 
time that he would otherwise spend in com- 
plaint in focusing his thought-forces upon the 
ideal that his mind has built, will sooner or later 
bring about the full materialization of that for 
which he sets out. 

There are those who, when they begin to 
grasp the fact that there is what we may term a 
" science of thought," who, when they begin 
to realize that through the instrumentality of 
our interior, spiritual thought-forces we have 
the power of gradually moulding the every-day 
conditions of life as we would have them, in 
their early enthusiasm are not able to see results 
as quickly as they expect, and are apt to think, 
therefore, that after all there is not very much 
in that which has but newly come to their 
knowledge. They must remember, however, 
that in endeavoring to overcome an old or to 
grow a new habit, everything cannot be done 
all at once. 

In the degree that we attempt to use the 
thought-forces do we continually become able 
to use them more effectively. Progress is slow 
at first, more rapid as we proceed. Power grows 



2l6 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



by using, or, in other words, using brings a con- 
tinually increasing power. This is governed by 
law the same as are all things in our lives, and 
all things in the universe about us. Every act 
and advancement made by the musician is in 
full accordance with law. No one commencing 
the study of music can, for example, sit down 
to the piano and play the piece of a master at 
the first effort. He must not conclude, however, 
nor does he conclude, that the piece of the mas- 
ter cannot be played by him, or, for that matter, 
by any one. He begins to practise the piece! 
The law of the mind that we have already no- 
ticed comes to his aid, whereby his mind follows 
the music more readily, more rapidly, and more 
surely each succeeding time, and there also 
comes into operation and to his aid the law un- 
derlying the action of the reflex nerve system 
of the body, which we have also noticed, where- 
by his fingers coordinate their movements with 
the movements of his mind, more readily, more 
rapidly, and more accurately each succeeding 
time; until by and by the time comes when 
that which he stumbles through at first, that in 
which there is no harmony, nothing but discord, 
finally reveals itself as the music of the master, 
the music that thrills and moves masses of men 
and women. So it is in the use of the thought- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 21 7 



forces. It is the reiteration, the constant reiter- 
ation of the thought that grows the power of 
continually stronger thought-focusing, and that 
finally brings manifestation. 

All life is from within out. This is something 
that cannot be reiterated too often. The springs 
of life are all from within. This being true, it 
would be well for us to give more time to the 
inner life than we are accustomed to give to it, 
especially in this Western world. 

There is nothing that will bring us such abun- 
dant returns as to take a little time in the quiet 
each day of our lives. We need this to get the 
kinks out of our minds and hence out of our lives. 
We need this to form better the higher ideals of 
life. We need this in order to see clearly in 
mind the things upon which we would concen- 
trate and focus the thought-forces. We need 
this in order to make continually anew and to 
keep our conscious connection with the Infinite. 
We need this in order that the rush and hurry 
of our every-day life does not keep us away 
from the conscious realization of the fact that 
the spirit of Infinite life and power that is back 
of all, working in and through all, the life of all, 
is the life of our life, and the source of our 
power; and that outside of this we have no life 



21 8 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

and we have no power. To realize this fact 
fully, and to live in it consciously at all times, is 
to find the kingdom of God, which is essentially 
an inner kingdom, and can never be anything 
else. The kingdom of heaven is to be found 
only within, and this is done once for all, and in 
a manner in which it cannot otherwise be done, 
when we come into the conscious, living reali- 
zation of the fact that in our real selves we are 
essentially one with the Divine life, and open 
ourselves continually so that this Divine life can 
speak to and manifest through us. In this way 
we come into the condition where we are con- 
tinually w r alking with God. In this way the 
consciousness of God becomes a living reality 
in our lives ; and in the degree in which it be- 
comes a reality does it bring us into the realiza- 
tion of continually increasing wisdom, insight, 
and power. This consciousness of God in the 
soul of man is the essence, indeed the sum, and 
substance of all religion. This identifies religion 
with every act and every moment of every-day 
life. That which does not identify itself with 
every moment of every day and with every act 
of life is religion in name only and not in reality. 
This consciousness of God in the soul of man is 
the one thing uniformly taught by all the 
prophets, by all the inspired ones, by all the 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 219 



seers and mystics in the world's history, what- 
ever the time, wherever the country, whatever 
the religion, whatever minor differences we may 
find in their lives and teachings. In regard to 
this they all agree; indeed, this is the essence 
of their teaching, as it has also been the secret 
of their power and the secret of their lasting 
influence. 

It is the attitude of the child that is necessary 
before we can enter into the kingdom of heaven. 
As it was said, " Except ye become as little 
children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of 
heaven." For we then realize that of ourselves 
we can do nothing, but that it is only as we 
realize that it is the Divine life and power 
working within us, and it is only as we open 
ourselves that it may work through us, that we 
are or can do anything. It is thus that the 
simple life, which is essentially the life of the 
greatest enjoyment and the greatest attainment, 
is entered upon. 

In the Orient the people as a class take far 
more time in the quiet, in the silence, than we 
take. Some of them carry this possibly to as 
great an extreme as we carry the opposite, with 
the result that they do not actualize and ob- 
jectify in the outer life the things they dream in 
the inner life. We give so much time to the 



J 



220 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

activities of the outer life that we do not take 
sufficient time in the quiet to form in the inner, 
spiritual thought-life the ideals and the condi- 
tions that we would have actualized and mani- 
fested in the outer life. The result is that we 
take life in a kind of haphazard way, taking it as 
it comes, thinking not very much about it until, 
perhaps, pushed by some bitter experiences, 
instead of moulding it, through the agency of 
the inner forces, exactly as we would have it. 
We need to strike the happy balance between 
the custom in this respect of the Eastern and 
Western worlds, and go to the extreme of neither 
the one nor the other. This alone will give 
the ideal life ; and it is the ideal life only that 
is the thoroughly satisfactory life. In the Orient 
there are many who are day after day sitting in 
the quiet, meditating, contemplating, idealizing, 
with their eyes focused on their stomach in 
spiritual revery, while through lack of outer 
activities, in their stomachs they are actually 
starving. In this Western world, men and 
women, in the rush and activity of our accus- 
tomed life, are running hither and thither, with 
no centre, no foundation upon which to stand, 
nothing to which they can anchor their lives, 
because they do not take sufficient time to come 
into the realization of what the centre, of what 
the reality of their lives is. 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 221 

If the Oriental would do his contemplating, and 
then get up and do his work, he would be in a 
better condition; he would be living a more 
normal and satisfactory life. If we in the 
Occident would take more time from the rush 
and activity of life for contemplation, for medi- 
tation, for idealization, for becoming acquainted 
with our real selves, and then go about our work 
manifesting the powers of our real selves, we 
would be far better off, because we would be 
living a more natural, a more normal life. To 
find one's centre, to become centred in the 
Infinite, is the first great essential of every sat- 
isfactory life ; and then to go out, thinking, 
speaking, working, loving, living, from this 
centre. 

In the highest character-building, such as we 
have been considering, there are those who feel 
they are handicapped by what we term heredity. 
In a sense they are right ; in another sense they 
are totally wrong. It is along the same lines as 
the thought which many before us had incul- 
cated in them through the couplet in the New 
England Primer: " In Adam's fall, we sinned 
all." Now, in the first place, it is rather hard to 
understand the justice of this if it is true. In 
the second place, it is rather hard to under- 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 



stand why it is true. And in the third place 
there is no truth in it at all. We are now 
dealing with the real essential self, and, how- 
ever old Adam is, God is eternal. This means 
you ; it means me ; it means every human soul. 
When we fully realize this fact we see that 
heredity is a reed that is easily broken. The 
life of every one is in his own hands and he can 
make it in character, in attainment, in power, in 
divine self-realization, and hence in influence, 
exactly what he wills to make it. All things 
that he most fondly dreams of are his, or may 
become so if he is truly in earnest; and as he 
rises more and more to his ideal, and grows in 
the strength and influence of his character, he 
becomes an example and an inspiration to all 
with whom he comes in contact ; so that through 
him the weak and faltering are encouraged and 
strengthened ; so that those of low ideals and 
of a low type of life instinctively and inevitably 
have their ideals raised, and the ideals of no one 
can be raised without its showing forth in his 
outer life. As he advances in his grasp upon 
and understanding of the power and potency of 
the thought-forces, he finds that many times 
through the process of mental suggestion he 
can be of tremendous aid to one who is weak 
and struggling, by sending to him now and then, 



WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 223 



and by continually holding him in the highest 
thought, in the thought of the highest strength, 
wisdom, and love. 

The one who takes sufficient time in the 
quiet mentally to form his ideals, sufficient 
time to make and to keep continually his con- 
scious connection with the Infinite, with the 
Divine life and forces, is the one who is best 
adapted to the strenuous life. He it is who can 
go out and deal with sagacity and power with 
whatever issues may arise in the affairs of every- 
day life. He it is who is building not for the 
years, but for the centuries ; not for time, but 
for the eternities. And he can go out knowing 
not whither he goes, knowing that the Divine 
life within him will never fail him, but will lead 
him on until he beholds the Father face to 
face. 

He is building for the centuries because only 
that which is the highest, the truest, the noblest, 
and best will abide the test of the centuries. 
He is building for eternity because when the 
transition we call death takes place, life, char- 
acter, self-mastery, divine self-realization, — 
the only things that the soul when stripped 
of everything else takes with it, — he has in 
abundance. In life, or when the time of the 
transition to another form of life comes, he is 



224 WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING 

never afraid, never fearful, because he knows 
and realizes that behind him, within him, beyond 
him, is the Infinite wisdom and love; and in 
this he is eternally centred, and from it he can 
never be separated. With Whittier he sings : 

" I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air ; 
I only know I cannot drift 
Beyond His love and care." 




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